In the 2003 Wall Street research settlement, defendants were required to pay $894 million in penalties and disgorgement, consisting of $397 million in disgorgement and $497 million in penalties, including Merrill Lynch's earlier $100 million payment connected to its settlement with the states over research-analyst conflicts.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by SEC press release 2003-144 with identical figures, plus corroborating litigation releases and news coverage of Merrill Lynch's prior $100 million settlement. [tier=silver indep_score=0.7 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- Federal Court Approves Global Research Analyst Settlement (seed:economics_and_business)
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/merrill-lynch-to-pay-100m-fine/ (corroboration)
- https://www.npr.org/2002/05/21/1143705/merrill-lynch-settlement (corroboration)