SEC Says Nobody Gets Pass in Securities Probe
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The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox, said investigations into the collapse of the auction-rate bond market extend beyond the banks that created the debt and settled with regulators to include brokerages that sold the investments.
“Nobody is getting a pass,” Mr. Cox said at a news conference in Washington today. “Secondary dealers, other primary dealers that aren’t part of the settlements are being investigated.” The Washington-based regulator has “over a dozen pending investigations,” he said.
Attorney General Cuomo said August 15 that he will next target brokerages, including units of Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab Corp. Mr. Cuomo and regulators including the SEC have won pledges from Citigroup Inc., UBS AG, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Wachovia Corp. to repurchase $34.8 billion of the securities. State regulators imposed $360 million in fines on the companies.
