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The University of California reached two major settlements in its ongoing class action lawsuit against Enron Corp. earlier this month, the largest monetary payments yet in the legal proceedings surrounding the energy giant’s bankruptcy.

An agreement for a payout of $2.2 billion from JPMorgan Chase & Co. was reached on June 14, just four days after a $2 billion settlement between the UC and Citigroup Inc.

Litigation between investors led by the UC and by a number of other banks, including Merrill Lynch & Co., Royal Bank of Canada and Deutsche Bank AG, is still pending.

The UC is representing a large group of individuals and institutions who invested in Enron and subsequently lost billions of dollars when the energy company’s fraudulent activities were exposed almost four years ago.

The JP Morgan settlement was the sixth in a series of payouts from various banks to shareholders. It brings the total amount of money recovered from the proceedings to $4.7 billion.

But attorney William S. Lerach, who represents the UC, said in a statement that there remains much more to be won.

“We are very proud of the University of California’s achievement,” Lerach said in a statement. “We continue to pursue other defendants, including other banks that have been charged with knowingly participating in the scheme to defraud Enron investors. Beyond today’s agreement, the lawsuit continues to proceed very satisfactorily and further large recoveries are anticipated.”

In a statement, JP Morgan said it did not admit any wrongdoings in the settlement of the case, and instead settled “solely to eliminate the uncertainties, burden and expense of further protracted litigation.”

It is estimated that Enron investors lost a combined total of $40 billion to $45 billion because of the energy company’s fraudulent acts.

But neither the total amount that will be recovered nor the percentage of this amount that will be distributed to each plaintiff are known.

The UC is estimated to have lost approximately $145 million as a result of Enron’s collapse, or approximately 0.2 percent of the UC’s total assets, which amount to over $63 billion.

These assets, among other things, include the endowments of the 10 UC campuses and fund the UC’s retirement benefits programs, according to a report published by the UC Office of the President.

UC officials have assured employees that these losses will not affect their benefits or pensions. In fact, the UC’s total portfolio actually grew significantly during the time when news of Enron’s collapse became public, according to the UC Office of the President.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is an agency that manages the retirement benefits of UC employees. Like the UC, CalPERS also manages its own investment portfolios. Under the terms of the Enron settlement, all plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including CalPERS, will receive a portion of the money recovered.

Bruce Willison, dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, said that in any event, the amounts potentially recovered by CalPERS will be small compared to the size of the portfolios they manage.

“(CalPERS) makes or loses more each day in the markets than they will receive in the settlement,” he said, adding that neither the money lost because of Enron’s collapse nor the money recovered in the settlement will significantly affect UC employees.

With reports from Bruin wire services.