JPMorgan's New CIO Tied to Madoff, U.S. Treasury, LTCM

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Matt Zames, the executive tapped to take over management of JPMorgan Chase (JPM)'s chief investment office (CIO), has a controversial resume that appears tailor-made to add to indignation over Wall Street's outsized influence and penchant for risk-taking.

Zames allegedly told a colleague about suspicions regarding Bernie Madoff some 18 months before his Ponzi scheme was revealed to the public.

JPMorgan is the clear analyst favorite among big banks.

He also worked at Long Term Capital Management, the now-infamous hedge fund comprised of top academics and Nobel Prize-winning economists whose blow-up rattled global markets in the late 1990s.

Zames also heads the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, a Wall Street committee that advises the U.S. Treasury on managing its debt.

JPMorgan's CIO has been thrust into the spotlight following last week's disclosure that it is sitting on $2 billion in losses, less than a month after JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon dismissed press reports voicing concerns about the CIO as "a complete tempest in a teapot." Dimon now says he was "dead wrong."

Zames, a co-head of fixed income at JPMorgan, will replace Ina Drew, who resigned in the wake of the losses.

A call to Zames was referred to JPMorgan's press office. A call to the bank's chief spokesman was not returned.

-- Written by Dan Freed in New York.

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