[Update] – As several commenters have pointed out, the proposal is pending legal approval from the court, which is uncertain.
The legal battle between JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and FDIC against the estate of WaMu had gotten down and dirty during the litigation, but that has come to an end now as they all kissed and made up, with the Washington Mutual estate getting $6 billion in the settlement agreed to.
How the $6 billion settlement breaks down is $4 billion in deposits will be returned to the estate, along with $2 billion in cash.
Other claims against the FDIC and JPMorgan in the lawsuit included the especially damning possibility that the two “conspired to lower WaMu’s sale price by leaking false information about WaMu’s finances to federal regulators and potential rival bidders.”
Most of the case was centered around the alleged releasing of “false information,” and even though the judge blocked a lot of important discovery, this didn’t hinder the settlement because the longer it was in the news the bigger hit JPMorgan and the FDIC were taking as a result.
This had the makings of a real fiasco for the FDIC and JPMorgan, and so it’s no surprise the settlement happened and a significant amount of money was returned to the WaMu estate to pay off many of its creditors.
Even without discovery being allowed in most cases, the overwhelming evidence was enough for the settlement to be the better decision than to allow the battle to be dragged through the media any longer.
