JP Morgan Penalized $228 Million to Settle Bid Rigging Charges

JP Morgan Chase has agreed to pay nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in compensation, penalties and disgorgement to federal and state agencies to settle charges of bid rigging in the municipal bond market, the Justice Department announced.

Under the agreement, the nation's second-largest bank "admits, acknowledges and accepts responsibility for illegal and anticompetitive conduct" by former employees at its municipal derivatives desk, who, from 2001 through 2006, rigged bids and manipulated the bidding process on municipal investment contracts.

"By entering into illegal agreements to rig bids on certain investment contracts, JPMorgan and its former executives deprived municipalities of the competitive process to which they were entitled," U.S. Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney said in a statement.