JPMorgan Chase (JPM) shareholders can cross one more thing off their list of uncertainties: Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has announced a resolution with the bank over its relationship with convicted Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff. The price tag will be $1.7 billion, the largest-ever bank forfeiture, according to Bharara's office. The money is expected to go to Madoff's victims. The most interesting aspect of the agreement is that it's not quite a settlement, but a deferred prosecution agreement, which means that the US Department of Justice agrees not to charge the bank criminally for a period of time -- two years -- while JPMorgan agrees to reform its policies and practices. A deferred prosecution is a powerful and, with banks, rarely used weapon that authorities reserve for cases in which the facts underlying the case are severe but a criminal indictment might destroy the company.