Superior Court Judge Edward Burke accepted the settlement, which came one week into a trial where the foundation's trust was seeking $150 million in compensatory damages and more in punitive damages relating to Andersen's audit work for the foundation.

The settlement resolves the trust case as well as a class-action lawsuit and pending cases brought by state regulators and the Arizona attorney general's office.

"Andersen is willing to accept its shared responsibility and has done so with this settlement. We hope other responsible parties also act accordingly. This puts all of these cases behind us and allows the firm to move forward. We think this is fair to the investors," said Andersen attorney Ed Novak.

Investors will get back about $175 million from the settlement, said foundation lawyer Sean Coffey. Another $220 million remains in trust assets.

On March 29, the accounting firm backed out of another $217 million settlement after saying its insurance carrier, Hamilton, Bermuda-based Professional Services Insurance Co., was unable to pay it.

Afterward, attorneys said all the pending cases would be resolved in court. The bankruptcy trust's lawsuit went on trial April 29.

Under the new settlement, Andersen must make an initial payment of $11 million by June 4, then pay off the rest in installments by Oct. 25.

Scottsdale resident Ted Kelly, 67, who lost $300,000 in the foundation collapse, said the case had left him and his wife, Betty, on a roller coaster. "We were at the bottom of the roller coaster. Now we're back at the top," he said.

The Baptist foundation was created in 1948 as a nonprofit religious entity to raise money for Southern Baptist causes.

During the 1980s, the foundation and its related companies began aggressively raising money through the sale of securities and the management of individual retirement accounts.

But Arizona officials said the foundation used a web of related companies to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars in investment funds before its 1999 bankruptcy.

The liquidation trust said Andersen ignored warning signs of foundation fraud, including whistle-blowers and a series of newspaper articles. It also alleged that Andersen concealed huge losses on financial statements that would have alerted investors to the foundation's troubles.

The state's lawsuit alleged that Andersen prepared financial statements that concealed huge losses, which should have been red- flagged to alert investors. The BFA lawsuits said the firm ignored or inadequately investigated warnings of potential trouble.

The state said that situation allowed senior managers of the foundation to mislead the board of directors and to engage in fraud at the expense of investors, drawing in money from new investors to pay inflated returns to past investors.

Three former BFA officials have pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Five others await trial.

In Houston Monday, Andersen went on trial for its life, charged with obstructing justice by shredding documents related to the collapse of energy giant Enron Corp.

A conviction in the first criminal case to emerge from the Enron debacle could deliver the knockout punch to the Chicago-based accounting firm that already has been plagued by bolting clients, fleeing partners, forced layoffs and a damaged reputation.

Prosecutors said if jurors determine that one Andersen employee destroyed documents to thwart government investigations on the firm's behalf, that's enough to secure a conviction.

"It's not a defense to come to court and say, `Well, just a few people did this and there are thousands of people who are innocent,' " Asst. U.S. Atty. Matt Friedrich told the 106 potential jurors summoned to a Houston courtroom on Monday.