Rummel then pleaded guilty to theft by false pretenses and was sentenced to time served under the terms of a plea-bargaining agreement.

The cartel apparently was referring to plea-bargaining agreements often made between drug suspects and the United States authorities.

Some people opposed to a plea-bargaining agreement are concerned that they might be implicitly implicated.

The unwillingness of the government to offer a decent plea-bargaining agreement left Mr. Ebbers with little choice but to go to trial.

A9 Two former bankers pleaded guilty in Chicago to bank fraud charges in a plea-bargaining agreement.

The firm also indicated in the same letter sent out late last week that it would favor a plea-bargaining agreement.

In the other instances, either the defendants reached plea-bargaining agreements or the Government dropped the charges.

For one thing, the new draft would allow judges to use probation and accept plea-bargaining agreements.

It followed the failure of the latest effort by lawyers for the Government and the investment house to reach a plea-bargaining agreement earlier in the day.

Contractors found to be withholding wages are required to return them to workers, he said, as a condition of entering into a plea-bargaining agreement.