JP Morgan Gifts Zelensky With Patriots Jersey and Major Agreement to Help Ukraine Find Private Capital to Rebuild

Press Association via AP Images.

J.P. Morgan, the largest bank in the U.S., will be bringing their investment expertise to the Ukrainian war effort, reaching an agreement with President Volodymyr Zelensky to organize a fund to help rebuild the war-torn nation’s infrastructure, according to a report by Fox Business senior correspondent Charles Gasparino.

The bank “signed a memorandum of understanding” with Zelensky, reported Gasparino, that will help with “attracting private capital” in the amount of $20 to 30 billion for the rebuilding effort.

J.P. Morgan bankers met with Zelensky and his top officials last week to discuss plans for the fund, along with other ideas that included inviting tech CEOs like Tim Cook at Apple to discuss economic development opportunities, meeting with GOP lawmakers like Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to work on calming Republican skepticism about funding the war effort, and creating “a bank administered by Wall Street firms that would make investments in oil refineries, roads, bridges and other pieces of economic infrastructure destroyed in Vladimir Putin’s year-long campaign to annex the country and rebuild the old Soviet Union,” according to sources familiar with the meetings’ discussions.

Zelensky himself tweeted a 20 minute video showing part of the meetings on Saturday, calling it a “key meeting” with the bank’s senior members to discuss “[p]ost-war long-term growth steps.”

The bankers also brought a special gift for the Ukrainian leader right before Super Bowl LVII:

J.P. Morgan bankers were on the ground in Kyiv and other cities, dodging bombs, and witnessing firsthand how the war has crippled the country’s economy. After a series of meetings with various ministers, they met directly with Zelenskyy on Friday night. As a gesture of goodwill on the eve of Sunday’s Super Bowl, the bankers also presented Zelenskyy with a New England Patriots jersey with the number “91,” to signify the year Ukraine gained independence from the old Soviet Union, these people say.

According to Fox Business, J.P. Morgan is “expected to make an announcement about its work in Ukraine on Monday.” Gasparino also noted that CEO Jamie Dimon has been a “particularly vocal” advocate for international support for Ukraine, calling the Russian invasion “an inflection point for the Western world for a hundred years… Do we get our act together to help win this war, help the Ukrainians, help rebuild Ukraine?”

Gasparino’s sources told him that “weeding out corruption and eliminating graft in government will be key to attracting private capital,” and that Zelensky was “receptive to the advice” from the bankers, understanding that “at some point the vast amounts of western aid to the country will come to an end and that private capital – which will demand a return for its investment – will be needed to rebuild.”

Read the report at Fox Business.