NEW YORK (AP) – J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is nearing settlement agreements with regulators to resolve allegations that the nation’s second-largest bank helped Enron Corp. gloss over its books, according to a newspaper report.

The outcome of two separate negotiations – with Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and the Securities and Exchange Commission – could be payments totaling as much as $175 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Tuesday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper reported that the proposed settlement with the district attorney would involve a payment of roughly $25 million and allow it to avoid prosecution.

Morgenthau’s office had empaneled a grand jury to investigate J.P. Morgan’s alleged role in helping Enron conceal debt and otherwise burnish financial statements before the energy company filed for bankruptcy in December 2001.

J.P. Morgan’s investors have privately expressed concerns about the criminal inquiry, which could have devastated the bank by banning it from acting as a fiduciary for its clients, a role crucial to vast aspects of its operations, the newspaper said.

The deal is expected to include promises by J.P. Morgan to change its business practices, though it could still change over the next several days, the Journal said.

The proposed settlement was expected to be reviewed by the bank’s board in a meeting Tuesday and could be announced by the end of the month, the newspaper said.

In separate negotiations, J.P. Morgan was also nearing a settlement with the SEC – likely between $100 million and $150 million – over the same Enron transactions, the sources told the Journal.

Representatives for J.P. Morgan declined to comment on the settlement talks.

AP-ES-07-15-03 0320EDT