FIRMS SETTLE WITH O.C. BONDHOLDERS.Byline: Ronald Campbell Orange County Register Owners of Orange County bonds and their attorneys will share $4.4 million from several securities firms that sold or arranged the bonds. The settlement, filed Friday, is the first among the dozens of lawsuits prompted by the county bankruptcy. Two of the most prominent defendants, Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER TYO: 8675 ), through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides capital markets services, investment banking and advisory services, wealth management, asset management, insurance, banking and related products and services on a global basis. & Co. and KPMG KPMG Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (accounting firm) KPMG Kaiser Permanente Medical Group KPMG Keiner Prüft Mehr Genau (German) KPMG Kommen Prüfen Meckern Gehen Peat Marwick, did not settle. The two companies also are targets of multibillion-dollar suits by the county. KPMG spokesman George Ledwith said the accounting firm probably will object. Those settling were Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, PaineWebber, Smith Barney Smith Barney is a division of Citigroup Global Capital Markets Inc., a global, full-service financial firm, that provides brokerage, investment banking and asset management services to corporations, governments and individuals around the world. , Kidder Peabody & Co., Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH), founded in 1850, is a diversified, global financial services firm. It is a participant in investment banking, equity and fixed income sales, research and trading, investment management, private equity, and private banking. , O'Brien Partners, Stone & Youngberg, Rauscher Pierce Refsnes and CGMS CGMS Continuous Glucose Monitoring System CGMS Copy Generation Management System CGMS Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites CGMS Crop Growth Monitoring System CGMS Coordination on Geostationary Meteorological Satellites Inc. They settled for amounts ranging from $27,500 (CGMS) to $900,000 (PaineWebber). Attorneys for the bondholders will get no more than a third of the settlement. Most of the defendants sold bonds for the county and for local governments in the county investment pool. O'Brien and CGMS were financial advisers on the deals. The firms did not admit wrongdoing wrong·do·er n. One who does wrong, especially morally or ethically. wrong  do . Orange County Superior Court Judge William F. McDonald must approve the settlement. The filing came two days after the county won court approval to pay its debts, including overdue bond payments. Bondholders alleged that they paid too much for $9 billion in county bonds because they didn't know how risky the bonds really were. The defendants ``knew or recklessly ignored'' the danger and failed to tell potential investors, the suit alleged. |
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