JPMorgan settles Madoff fraud claims for $1.7B

JPMorgan settles Madoff fraud claims for $1.7B

NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase & Co., already beset by other costly legal woes, has agreed to pay $1.7 billion to settle criminal charges accusing the bank of ignoring obvious warning signs of Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, federal authorities said today. The government said the $1.7 billion represented the largest ever bank forfeiture and the largest Department of Justice penalty for a Bank Secrecy Act violation. The settlement includes a so-called deferred prosecution agreement that requires the bank to acknowledge failures in its protections against money laundering but also allows it to avoid criminal charges. No individual executives were accused of wrongdoing.