Bad omen: States targeting Wachovia on auction rate securities

Nothing whips up state securities regulators more than petty scams against their citizens. They live to crack down on these things. So it's really bad news for Wachovia that agents from several states have raided the St. Louis headquarters of Wachovia Securities (formerly AG Edwards). Juts one more piece of bad news to grapple with. They're looking for evidence of fraud regarding auction rate securities, notes the AP. Missouri seems to be spearheading the effort, after having received complaints from "hundreds" of Missouri residents. The state says the raid was necessary because Wachovia had not fully complied with requests. The issues here are whether investors were told these were fail-safe investments. We'll hear more about this from around the country. Investors across the spectrum--retail to institutional--are still fuming.  

For more:
- here's the AP article

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