Last year, Putnam agreed to settle accusations of fraud filed by the commission and state officials.

Ogilvy New York was not a party to the case because it agreed in 2002 to pay $1.8 million to settle civil accusations.

He also agreed to pay $3.1 million to settle related accusations by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 1999, Abbott Laboratories paid $100 million to settle accusations about manufacturing problems.

Putnam paid $110 million in early 2004 to settle federal accusations of improper trading.

The government was responding to popular support to have the trials and settle longstanding accusations dating to the liberation war of 1971.

An additional $25 million will go to settle accusations that it defrauded the Medicaid programs, which are partly financed by the states.

But the strategy failed, and the firm agreed to pay $50 million in fines last April to settle regulatory accusations that it issued biased research.

Abbott agreed to pay $100 million to settle accusations that it failed to follow manufacturing regulations in making hundreds of medical test kits.

Ogilvy agreed in February 2002 to pay $1.8 million to settle civil accusations brought by the government.