WPPSS Settlement Approved: Six years after the...

WPPSS Settlement Approved: Six years after the nation’s largest municipal bond default, U.S. District Judge William D. Browning of Tucson has approved settlements to allow $750 million to be distributed to holders of Washington Public Power Supply System bonds. Browning, who presided over the WPPSS litigation, filed a 106-page opinion approving settlements reached in the past year between Chemical Bank and defendants in the case. Chemical Bank is trustee for the bondholders. In 1983, WPPSS defaulted on $2.25 billion in bonds that it had sold to finance construction of two nuclear power plants in Washington.