Peregrine Financial Group Inc.’s trustee agreed to settle a dispute with JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a deal that will bring more than $15 million to creditors of the commodities firm, which filed for bankruptcy after its founder looted client accounts, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Under the agreement filed yesterday in bankruptcy court, JPMorgan will pay $1.25 million and release $14 million in cash it’s holding as collateral for its claim against Peregrine. JPMorgan also agreed to reduce the size of that claim, trustee Ira Bodenstein said in the filing. Peregrine, a Cedar Falls, Iowa-based commodities firm with offices in Chicago, filed for bankruptcy to liquidate in 2012 after the National Futures Association said more than $200 million in customer funds were missing. The firm’s founder, Russell Wasendorf Sr., now serving a 50-year prison sentence for fraud and embezzlement, stole mostly from customers who traded on U.S. exchanges, the trustee said.
