A bankruptcy judge yesterday approved JPMorgan Chase & Co's $543 million deal to end two private lawsuits stemming from its relationship with convicted Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff, Reuters reported today. A spokeswoman for the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC confirmed that Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein approved the agreement, which was made public on January 7, the same day federal authorities announced the bank had agreed to pay more than $2 billion to settle criminal charges related to the Madoff fraud. JPMorgan will pay $218 million to resolve class-action litigation and $325 million to resolve claims brought by the trustee Irving Picard.
