JPMorgan To Settle Enron Litigation For $2.2 Billion
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JPMorgan Chase & Company agreed to pay investors $2.2 billion to resolve claims it helped Enron inflate revenue by hiding debt, in the largest fraud settlement by the company’s investment bankers, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney said.
JPMorgan settled less than a week after Citigroup said it would pay $2 billion to resolve litigation sparked by the energy trader’s 2001 collapse, attorney William Lerach said in an e-mailed release. Both banks were accused of helping Enron mislead investors through off-the- books partnerships. Shareholders also alleged that JPMorgan misrepresented loans as energy trades.
“Everybody wants this stuff to just go away,” said Richard Bove, an analyst at Punk Ziegel & Company in Pinellas Park, Fla. “This is putting a cap on it, and investors will breathe a sigh of relief that this is over.”
