10:56 AM EDT, 09/06/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Morgan Stanley ( MS ) agreed to pay a $2 million fine to settle a Massachusetts investigation into its role in the sale of First Republic Bank stock by the bank's then-executive chairman in the months leading up to the bank's failure, the state's Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said Friday.

In the runup to First Republic's failure last year, James Herbert II sold over $6.8 million worth of company stock through Morgan Stanley ( MS ), Galvin said. An investigation by the Massachusetts Securities Division found that Morgan Stanley ( MS ) failed to ensure that Herbert wasn't trading on material nonpublic information, Galvin added.

Morgan Stanley ( MS ) did not immediately reply to a request for comment from MT Newswires.

Shares of Morgan Stanley ( MS ) fell 1.6% in recent trading.

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