Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and 15 other underwriters reimbursed California $2.3 million last year after a regulatory probe found they used taxpayer funds to pay fees to their lobbyists.
Citigroup, the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, returned $479,994, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch repaid a combined $456,482 and JPMorgan paid $490,449 for itself and Bear Stearns Cos., which it acquired, according to a spreadsheet California Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s office sent to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The documents were obtained by Bloomberg News through a California Public Records Act request.
The repayments were about 50 percent more than Lockyer had estimated was owed a year ago, when the practice was uncovered in a Finra investigation of the California Public Securities Association, which lobbies state officials for the municipal- bond industry.