Friday, January 25, 2008

New York City Sues Countrywide's Underwriters for Allegedly Helping the Home Lender Defraud Investors.

New York's city and state comptrollers and their pension funds have sued Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and 23 more underwriters of Countrywide Financial Corp. for allegedly helping the home lender defraud investors.

The state and city pension funds' combined losses due to Countrywide's declining stock price were as much as $100 million, according to City Comptroller William Thompson Jr.

``Investors lost millions and New Yorkers lost their homes,'' New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement. ``We need to recover the pension fund's losses and find a way to help all those families.''

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Friday, January 4, 2008

Merrill Lynch & Co. probed in connection with sales of CDOs to the city of Springfield

Merrill Lynch & Co. was subpoenaed by Massachusetts regulators after the value of collateralized debt obligations the brokerage firm sold to the city of Springfield plunged 91 percent because of losses tied to subprime mortgages.

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``There are a whole range of concerns, including how the investments were presented to the city of Springfield and whether these were inappropriate investments for a city,'' Secretary of State William Galvin said. ``We don't want to pre-judge but just want to assess the information.''

The Springfield finance board said it ``believes that Merrill Lynch can and should be held fully accountable for any potential losses.''