Reuters: California mulls probing senator (Schumer) over IndyMac crash

California mulls probing senator over IndyMac crash
Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:51pm EDT

By John Poirier

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California's attorney general
is reviewing a request by former employees of IndyMac
Bancorp Inc to investigate whether a New York senator
triggered the bank's collapse by releasing confidential
information.

At issue is a much-publicized letter that Chuck Schumer,
a Democrat, sent in June to the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp (FDIC) and Office of Thrift Supervision
(OTS) questioning the company's ability to survive.

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In a letter to Attorney General Jerry Brown last week,
51 former IndyMac workers wrote: "From the day
(Schumer's) letter was made public on June 26 until the
closure of the bank, a run on the bank took place and
the failure became inevitable."

Brown's spokeswoman Christine Gasparac said on
Wednesday that his office was reviewing the letter and
that a decision on whether to act on it could be made
as early as next week.

IndyMac is based in Pasadena, California.

-snip-