NEWARK — JPMorgan Chase & Co. will pay a $1.1 million fine to New Jersey to end an investigation into the sale of auction rate securities, state officials announced today. The financial firm will also buy back about $91.2 million in securities from New Jersey investors. The state had accused JPMorgan of selling auction rate securities to investors without...
A 2008 file photo shows a JPMorgan Chase branch in New York. NEWARK — JPMorgan Chase & Co. will pay a $1.1 million fine to New Jersey to end an investigation into the sale of auction rate securities, state officials announced today.
The financial firm will also buy back about $91.2 million in securities from New Jersey investors.
The state had accused JPMorgan of selling auction rate securities to investors without disclosing the high risk involved.
“New Jersey investors, whose (auction rate securities) investments were frozen as a result of JPMorgan’s role in these auction market failures, will now regain access to their funds under terms of this settlement,” state Attorney General Paula Dow said. “Our Bureau of Securities continues to work with other state regulators to protect investors and ensure the return of their monies.”
State officials said the consent decree with JPMorgan is the sixth entered with a financial firm that sold auction rate securities. They said those legal agreements have allowed investors to recoup more than $1 billion.
“JPMorgan has agreed to do what’s right by offering to repurchase its clients’ positions, and I fully expect other firms that employed similar practices in marketing and selling these securities in New Jersey to do the same," said Marc Minor, chief of the state Bureau of Securities.
Tom Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan, declined to comment.
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