On Aug. 7, 2012, a district court ordered disgorgement in a case described as DOJ's "first attempt to obtain disgorgement from a financial services firm that used derivative agreements to facilitate anticompetitive behavior."  DOJ had alleged that Morgan Stanley engineered an electricity price-fixing scheme between two electricity generators operating in New York City by acting as a counterparty to agreements with each company and aiding efforts to manipulate electricity prices.  In approving the settlement, the court noted that the $4.8 million settlement was a "relatively mild sanction" in light of the "stark allegations of manipulative conduct" against Morgan Stanley, but concluded that judicial deference to DOJ's decision to settle was appropriate and declined to "second-guess the wisdom of [DOJ's] decision to pursue a disgorgement remedy rather than restitution."