WILMINGTON, Del. — Washington Mutual may be forced to fight the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for ownership of $4.4 billion in cash.
The FDIC said in court papers filed Monday that it may claim part of the cash because it is the agency responsible for selling WaMu’s banking subsidiaries last month to JPMorgan Chase after the units were seized by regulators.
Bankruptcy attorneys watching the case say the $4.4 billion is likely to become a prize fought over by competing bondholders owed billions.
WaMu filed for bankruptcy Sept. 26, the day after it was seized by regulators and sold to JPMorgan for $1.9 billion.
JPMorgan, the FDIC and WaMu are working on a deal to allow WaMu to withdraw the money held by JPMorgan, WaMu attorney Marcia Goldstein said in court Monday. That move is opposed by noteholders of Washington Mutual Bank, who said in court papers that the withdrawal would be unfair without forcing WaMu to prove it owns the cash.
“No bank would ever let someone walk up to the teller window and withdraw even one dollar from an account without confirming that the account was actually established and that the account actually belonged to the customer,” the noteholders said.
