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JPMorgan settles bond case for $700 million

WASHINGTON --- JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to a settlement worth more than $700 million over federal regulators' charges that it made unlawful payments to friends of public officials to win municipal bond business in Jefferson County, Ala.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announced the settlement with JPMorgan, which canceled interest-rate swap contracts with the county worth $700 million in March. The move lowers the county's bond debt to about $3.2 billion from $3.9 billion, but officials had no immediate comment on whether that was enough to help the county avoid filing what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy ever.

The Wall Street bank did not admit or deny the SEC allegations in agreeing to pay a $25 million civil fine and a $50 million payment to the county, and to forfeit $647 million in termination fees it claims the county owes from the canceled swap agreements.

In other news

New York's attorney general on Wednesday accused Intel Corp., the world's biggest computer chip maker, of using "illegal threats and collusion" to dominate the market. In a federal antitrust lawsuit, Andrew Cuomo said Intel paid billions of dollars in kickbacks to computer manufacturers and retaliated against those that did too much business with Intel's competitors, namely Advanced Micro Devices Inc.