JP Morgan Chase and BlueLinx Linked to Illegal Logging of Endangered Forests and Resulting Humanitarian Crisis.

Byline: Rainforest Action Network

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24 (AScribe Newswire) -- Investigations by Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network have confirmed that JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) client BlueLinx (NYSE: BXC), America's largest building products distributor, is smuggling legally disputed, undocumented timber out of Indonesia's critically endangered rainforests and flooding the U.S. marketplace with artificially cheap lauan plywood. The conservation community is calling on JP Morgan Chase and BlueLinx to immediately comply with a voluntary corporate embargo of Indonesian forest products already in place at Centex Corporation (NYSE: CTX), International Paper (NYSE: IP) and Lanoga Corporation.

Information obtained from U.S. Customs & Border Protection, an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, proves that BlueLinx, a former division of Georgia Pacific (NYSE: GP), is knowingly purchasing from eight Indonesian mills that have well-documented histories of trafficking in illegal timber according to the Indonesian Department of Forestry. An IMD case study published on DirtyMoney.org details the trafficking of undocumented wood by current BlueLinx suppliers in Indonesia including Barito Pacific Timber, Decorindo Inti Alam Wood, Kayu Lapis Indonesia, Melapi Timber, Sangkulirang Bhakti, Sumalindo Lestari Jaya, Tunggal Agathis Indah Wood and Tunggal Yudi Sawmill Plywood.

On September 2, 2004 BlueLinx filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of common stock raising approximately $120 million. The required registration statement declared that BlueLinx has "a substantial amount of debt." An attached amendment submitted November 26, 2004 documented a credit agreement dated October 26, 2004 as Exhibit 10.18 listing JP Morgan Chase Bank as a…