JPMorgan settles lawsuit against "Whale" boss

London, Jan 27 : JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) has reached an out-of-court settlement over its lawsuit against the former boss of Bruno Iksil, the trader known as the "London Whale" for huge bets he took that cost the bank $6.2 billion, a person familiar with the matter said.

Javier Martin-Artajo, who was Iksil's immediate supervisor, had been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed at London's High Court on October 22.

JPMorgan said last July it was seeking to claw back pay from those people it held responsible for the losses. Details of the action against Martin-Artajo were not released.

A source familiar with the lawsuit said the case against Martin-Artajo had now been settled.

Further details were not available. JPMorgan declined to comment. Martin-Artajo's lawyer, Greg Campbell of Mishcon de Reya, declined to comment.

Campbell said last year he was confident his client would be cleared of wrongdoing, noting he had never attempted to conceal the losses either directly or indirectly.

JPMorgan said in July all managers in the chief investment office (CIO) with responsibility for the losses had left the bank. Martin-Artajo and the former CIO head in Europe, Achilles Macris, were among those who left, along with Iksil himself.

JPMorgan released a detailed report on the loss from trading positions taken from London for the CIO. The trades, made with credit derivatives, became too big for the company to exit easily.

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