Goldman Settles Its Battle With SEC

online.wsj.com — In one of the largest penalties in Wall Street history, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to pay $550 million to settle civil charges that it duped clients by selling mortgage securities that were secretly designed by a hedge-fund firm to cash in on the housing market's collapse.

But the agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission ends a showdown that had deeply shaken America's most powerful financial firm at a cost that outside observers deemed a bargain.

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