Morgan Stanley to pay $4.8 mln, no admission of wrongdoing
* Electricity price-fixing said to cost consumers $300 mln
* Justice Department: Pact sends message to banking industry
* Morgan Stanley declines to comment
By Jonathan Stempel
Aug 7 (Reuters) - A federal judge grudgingly approved Morgan Stanley's $4.8 million settlement of electricity price-fixing charges over activity estimated to have cost New York consumers about $300 million, turning aside claims by a major nonprofit that the accord let the bank off too easily.
The case, which also involved the electricity generator KeySpan Corp, was the first in which the U.S. Department of Justice said it tried to recover improper profit from a financial services company that used derivatives to foster anticompetitive behavior...MUCH MORE
