Source:
Reuters14 May 2010, 0043 hrs IST,REUTERS
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK: US prosecutors are conducting a broad criminal investigation of six major Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc, to determine if they misled investors, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The others are Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc , the source said.
The investigation, being conducted with the Securities and Exchange Commission, comes as Wall Street and major banks around the world are attracting scrutiny from regulators who are looking at transactions that occurred in the run-up to the subprime mortgage meltdown and financial crisis.
The source said the investigation includes mortgage-bond deals, that it is in an early stage and that it might not necessarily lead to criminal charges against all of the firms. The person spoke anonymously because the probe is ongoing.
Separately, New York authorities opened an investigation into whether eight banks, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, misled rating agencies with regard to mortgage-derivative deals, a separate source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office served subpoenas on Wednesday to four U.S. banks and four European lenders, the source said. Cuomo is also targeting Credit Agricole SA, Credit Suisse Groupe AG, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Merrill Lynch, now owned by Bank of America Corp, the second source said.
Read more:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/global-markets/Criminal-probe-targets-6-Wall-Street-firms-Source/articleshow/5928309.cms