Morgan Stanley Agrees to Pay $249 Million to Settle Block-Trading Probes

Morgan Stanley agreed Friday to pay $249 million to settle criminal and regulatory investigations into allegations that some employees improperly shared information about clients’ stock sales, the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office said.

The resolution ends a long-running probe into how the bank sold large blocks of stock for institutional investors. Morgan Stanley obtained a nonprosecution agreement, a form of leniency that means it won’t face criminal charges as long as it cooperates with ongoing requests from prosecutors for three years and doesn’t violate its settlement agreement.