Without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, JPMorgan agreed to pay $153.6 million--including a $133 million penalty--to resolve allegations that it marketed an ill-fated collateralized debt obligation without disclosing the role of a hedge fund that was shorting assets in the CDO.

We knew the Justice Department had been using the False Claims Act and piggybacking on whistleblower suits to go after big players in the mortgage crisis. Now we have a better idea of the extent of the campaign, thanks to the documents that the DOJ filed Monday in connection with last month's $25 billion foreclosure settlement.

HSBC and its lawyers at Cleary Gottlieb have struggled for months to win court approval for a class action settlement with Thema International Fund Investors, and they hoped to persuade the judge one last time even after he'd dismissed the plaintiffs claims last month. Thanks to a ruling Friday by Manhattan federal district court judge Richard Berman, it looks like they may not get another chance.

Russia's claims to the famed Stolichnaya vodka trademark in the U.S. were put on ice by a federal appellate ruling on Monday.

Shareholders' lawyers will get to see whatever the bank has turned over to Congress, the SEC, the New York attorney general, and other investigators--including, most likely, the communications between BofA and its lawyers that have already been turned over to the government.