Laying down; Enron litigation.(Dropping the case against Enron Corp.'s bankers)

Economist (US), The, March, 2007

Bad news for banks that settled early with Enron's shareholders

DEFENDANTS in American securities suits do not always know how strong a hand they hold. They may fight and lose their case, when they should have settled. Or they may fold too early, when they could have stayed in the game and won.

Folding a strong hand is what Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Canada's CIBC appear to have done. In 2005, under pressure over their alleged roles in the fraud that felled Enron four years earlier, they each agreed to settle with the bust energy trader's shareholders for $2 billion or more. Though the sums were huge, they calculated that fighting on would only prolong the agony. That after all was the fate of lenders who refused to settle promptly in a case...

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