Wall Street firms dodge a bullet

Jim Kim — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:42:49 -0400

The Washington Post reports that the Justice Department has decided it will not seek indictments against Wall Street firms, concentrating instead on individuals. So it seems unlikely that we'll see another Arthur Andersen, which was (in)famously dealt the corporate death sentence six years ago in the wake of the Enron scandal. But this certainly doesn't mean prosecutors are going easy. If anything, individuals ought to be more nervous. There will be more resources to take a look at such activity as false and misleading statements and insider dealing. The FBI has opened investigations at no fewer than 26 companies. You can bet that there will be some indictments. You can't have an implosion of this magnitude and not have indictments.

For more:
- here's the article

More Bear Stearns charges coming?

Jim Kim — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:35:57 -0400

NPR reports that there could be new indictments against Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, the two Bear Stearns execs who have already been charged with misleading investors. The new charges reportedly would deal with the funds relationship with the banks that provided credit and various guarantees. NPR notes that prosecutors already have spoken with Barclays, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. Barclays sued Bear Stearns, though I'm not sure where that stands. Clearly, the government would like to make an example of these two men. There are a lot of probes going on. My sense is we're more likely to see more states take action sooner. The feds will pick their cases carefully. Consider the case by Massachusetts regulators against UBS over its auction-rate securities sales practices.

For more,
- here's the article

Indictments

Wall Street firms dodge a bullet

More Bear Stearns charges coming?