|  | | 2008 News and Press Releases | | |
HEADLINE NEWS:
Auction-rate Probes Go National, States get involved in searching for causes and consequences of damage from the deterioration of the once-reliable market.
Stephen Taub
cfo.com. April 21, 2008
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EXCERPT: From coast to coast, state and federal regulators are stepping up their probes of the auction-rate securities market. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo subpoenaed 18 banks and securities firms, including a number of well-known large names, according to a report in Bloomberg News. The probe could lead to criminal charges, the wire service added, citing a person familiar with the investigation. "We're all getting complaints on a daily basis from retail investors and they all have the same the story: they were told by their brokers these were safe as cash and they're not,'" Bryan Lantagne, the securities division director for Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, told Bloomberg. Massachusetts is participating in an ARS state task force with Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association. Meanwhile, the inspections office of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission sent letters to the biggest sellers of ARS this month, seeking names of customers who purchased the notes and the identities of brokers who sold them. The regulator is interested in how Wall Street firms sold the bonds to investors and issuers, the wire service stressed. "To have subpoenas and the threat of criminal investigations raised suggests that somebody has made up their mind that there really are abuses there," Donald Langevoort, a former SEC, told the wire service. |
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