Fidelity Investments to repay $41 million to investors' funds

BOSTON – Fidelity Investments announced today that it will repay more than $40 million to funds affected by allegations that its traders improperly steered business to brokerage firms that gave them travel, entertainment, gifts and gratuities.

The company said, however, that an internal investigation failed to unearth evidence of unethical conduct, according to a statement released by Fidelity on its Web site.

Fidelity did not specify which funds would receive the money — some $40.7 million, plus interest.

On Dec. 4, brokerage firm Jefferies & Co. agreed to pay some $9.7 million to settle regulators' charges that it illegally lavished nearly $2 million in golf trips, entertainment and other gifts to Fidelity mutual fund traders in exchange for their trading business.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers, the brokerage industry's self-policing organization, announced the settlements, under which two Jefferies executives also were sanctioned.

National Association of Securities Dealers rules prohibit such gifts if they are worth more than $100. In addition, mutual-fund advisers are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest.

Fidelity Investments was not a party to the settlements.

Fidelity's own internal review was conducted by retired federal Judge John Martin Jr., on instructions from the company's Independent Trustees. It concluded that certain traders had misdirected order flow among brokerage firms on Fidelity's approved list, according to a statement.

"Judge Martin concluded that it was not possible to prove statistically that traders' receipt (of improper favors) did or did not result in excessive execution costs for the Funds," according to the Fidelity statement.

The investigator relied on elements of the statistical analysis and other considerations to recommend that Fidelity pay the affected funds $40.7 million, plus interest and expenses of the investigation, the statement said.