On Feb. 17, Judge Garrett Brown Jr., Chief Judge for the District of New Jersey, approved the settlement of all claims against Marsh & McLennan in the In re Insurance Brokerage Antitrust Litigation action. The $69 million settlement resolves the private party actions brought against Marsh following the New York attorney general’s high-profile “contingent commission” investigation in 2005. Both the investigation and the follow-on suits, which were consolidated before Judge Brown, alleged that Marsh orchestrated a conspiracy to rig bids for excess insurance policies and that Marsh steered customers to certain preferred insurers. Marsh settled the New York attorney general’s investigation in 2005 by agreeing to pay $850 million in restitution for its actions.