Executives with the banking giant JPMorgan Chase appeared before a Senate panel on Friday to answer questions around the so-called “London Whale” trades that cost the bank more than $6 billion and derailed financial markets worldwide. A Senate probe last week accused JPMorgan Chase of misleading the public, manipulating documents and ignoring warnings from within its own ranks as the losses piled up. Michigan Senator Carl Levin and Arizona Senator John McCain said JPMorgan had acted recklessly.

Sen. Carl Levin: “We took a closer look, and it isn’t pretty: a massive derivatives portfolio riddled with risk, a runaway train of derivatives trading — a runaway train of derivatives trading, blowing through risk limits, hidden losses, bank executives downplaying the bad bets, regulators who failed to act.”

Sen. John McCain: “It is unsettling that a group of traders made reckless decisions with federally insured money and that all of this was done with the full awareness of top officials at JPMorgan. This bank appears to have entertained, indeed embraced, the idea that it was, quote, 'too big to fail.'”

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was not among the executives to testify before the committee. Former chief investment officer Ina Drew, who was tasked with overseeing the bank’s trades, blamed subordinates for providing misleading information.

Ina Drew: “Ultimately, my oversight of this synthetic credit book was undermined by two critical facts that I have come to learn only recently based on the company’s public statements. First, the company’s new VaR model was flawed and significantly understated the real risks in the book that were reported to me. And second, some members of the London team failed to value positions properly and in good faith. They minimized reported and projected losses and hid from me important information regarding the true risks of the book.”