Multi-millionaire Wall Street executives have begged the world's biggest bank to cancel its in-person conference in lawless San Francisco next year because they fear for their safety with the city's out-of-control smash-and-grab crime.
A number of unidentified high-ranking financiers have complained about having to make the trip to attend JPMorgan's 40th Annual Healthcare Conference in the crime-ridden Bay Area in January.
'I'm scared, the amount of lawlessness now is astounding,' one senior Wall Street executive told the New York Post. 'Violence is a huge topic of discussion at our bank.'
The senior executive said his colleagues have pleaded with their bosses to put a stop to the 20,000-strong in-person conference.
'People were upset about crime in San Francisco before the pandemic, now this smash-and-grab is a whole new level of mayhem,' another executive told the Post.
DailyMail.com has contacted JPMorgan for comment.
San Francisco has seen a dramatic increase in crime rates across the board, particularly in larceny thefts
A group of about 40 to 50 teenage shoplifters made off with an unknown amount of jewelry and other items in San Francisco's sub region of Hayward last month. Experts and officials say national crime networks are behind many of the 'smash-and-grab ' operations
The conference which connects the healthcare industry with potential investors is slated to be held from January 10 to 13 at the Westin St Hotel in Union Square - just blocks away from where a huge, coordinated smash-and-grab robbery targeted multiple luxury stores last month.
The event, often referred as the healthcare 'hunger games,' gathers more than 20,000 people annually between representatives from companies such as Pfizer, Clearview and Moderna and prominent and wealthy individuals.
JPMorgan has ignored pleas from 'spooked' Wall Street executives to cancel an in-person conference in crime-ridden San Francisco over concerns for their safety
Last year's event was held entirely online due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
Some people have suggested that Wall Street executives are using crime levels as an excuse to avoid travel after becoming accustomed to working from home during the pandemic.
'It's clear the crime you're seeing is petty crime, not attacking executives at red lights in tinted-window SUVs headed to conferences,' one corporate executive who has attended the conference as a speaker said.
But crime has been at a high in the city, which recorded more than 10,000 car robberies and almost 600 commercial burglaries in 2021 alone.
JPMorgan plans to hold its 40th Annual Healthcare Conference from January 10 to 13 at the Westin St Hotel in Union Square, just blocks away from where the looting unfolded in almost a dozen shops, as executives plead with the firm to move the event online
However, there are no signs that JPMorgan will relent and move the conference online. As of Wednesday, the meeting is listed on the company's website as 'coming soon.'
'We're continually monitoring several factors like COVID-19 and recent safety concerns highlighted in the news in the San Francisco area. We have not altered our plans for an in-person conference at this time nor are we considering canceling the event,' the statement read.
JPMorgan states that the conference is invite only for their clients.
The Westin, where the conference is held every year, is not allowing bookings from January 9 to 11, while check-ins on the 12 are $1,059, an unusual amount compared to the average $200 per night the hotel usually charges.
Fears persist about visiting San Francisco which has been targeted again and again by gangs of thieves and robbers.
Footage from late November showed police chasing down one of the robbers who allegedly completely decimated a Louis Vuitton store, just blocks away from where the conference will be held.
The store was ransacked by a group of more than a dozen thieves on November 19.
Police responded to the Union Square Louis Vuitton store where they 'observed several suspects involved in criminal acts.'
Video posted on social media showed the brazen robbery unfold. Onlookers captured masked thieves running through the streets with their hands full of clothing items and bags.
In the same video, a group of officers is seen chasing another thief to their parked getaway car and bashing in the windows with batons, dragging the culprit out of the car and restraining them on the sidewalk.
Footage from November showed a decimated Louis Vuitton storefront in Union Square with shattered glass all over the sidewalk and totally empty shelves
California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed to get tough with organized gangs of thieves who have ransacked and looted luxury retail stores in the San Francisco Bay Area
DA Chesa Boudin voiced his concern for the crimes but said the looting was a national trend
Other footage shows the decimated storefront with shattered glass all over the sidewalk and totally empty shelves.
Police confirmed they had arrested multiple suspects and that the Louis Vuitton store may have not been the only one targeted.
An eyewitness said she saw more than a dozen people leave the store carrying as much merchandise as they could, CBS San Francisco reported.
KTVU reported that their camera crews saw a nearby Fendi and Yves Saint Laurent store hit by thieves, as well.
Looting and shoplifting have been a problem in the Democrat-run state since 2014 - following the passage of Proposition 47, a ballot referendum known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act - that downgraded the theft of property worth less than $950 in value from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Mayor London Breed has largely downplayed the spike in theft and shoplifting crimes in the city, and has blamed it on retailers hunger to 'cut costs.'
After Walgreens announced in October that they needed to shutter five stores in the city because its soft laws on shoplifting have led to rampant theft, Breed claimed that the big chain was simply trying to slash costs and increase profits - and that retail theft was an easy scapegoat.
Looting and shoplifting have been a problem in the Democrat-run state since 2014 - following the passage of Proposition 47, a ballot referendum known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act - that downgraded the theft of property worth less than $950 in value from a felony to a misdemeanor
San Francisco elected officials, including Mayor London Breed (pictured above), are claiming that Walgreens is using shoplifting as a false narrative to close stores for cost efficiency reasons
'They are saying (shoplifting is) the primary reason, but I also think when a place is not generating revenue, and when they're saturated — S.F. has a lot of Walgreens locations all over the city — so I do think that there are other factors that come into play,' Breed said.
The national chain has closed 17 of its 70 San Francisco locations in the past two years and cited the shelf raiders, who have swiped every kind of product not behind lock and key.
The pharmacy chain insists that San Francisco's rampant crime is to blame, revealing it spends 46 times as much on security at its city stores, which face five times as many shoplifting incidents compared with those elsewhere in the country.
Larceny theft remains the most common crime committed in San Francisco, increasing by about 15 percent from last year. There were more than 27,000 cases reported in November of this year, compared with 23,500 cases during the same time through 2020.
Meanwhile, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin's approach on crime seemed toughen as the city grappled with bad publicity after the November 19-22 looting spree in Union Square.
Boudin, one of the most notorious progressive DA's in the country, charged arrested looters with felony charges, but like Breed disregarded the alarming trend in San Francisco, adding that 'We are seeing similar crimes across the country.'
He has since organized a retail theft task force leading more than half a dozen multi-agency investigations to
