USA Today
Citigroup’s tab for reimbursing clients who said the financial giant misled them into investing in risky hedge funds marketed as the safety equivalent of municipal bonds has soared to at least $85 million. And counting. The payments, awarded since 2008 in 59 arbitrations or settlements, represent just part of a continuing legacy of the nation’s […]
Wall Street Journal
Should investors be allowed to bring class-action lawsuits against brokerages? Discount brokerage Charles Schwab and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, are in the midst of a dispute over that issue—and it could have wide implications for investors. When investors open brokerage accounts, they’re generally required to agree not to sue the broker. Instead, […]
FINalternatives
Despite tens of millions in payouts and dozens of claims of wrongdoing, the former manager of a family of Citigroup hedge funds that collapsed in 2008 isn’t apologizing. Quite the contrary: Reaz Islam, who managed the highly-levered ASTA/MAT municipal bond hedge funds, wouldn’t do anything differently. According to Islam, speaking out for the first time […]
Business Week
Reaz Islam, who ran Citigroup Inc. (C) hedge funds that lost most of their value in 2008, has “no regrets” about his performance and said “ambulance-chasing” lawyers are behind claims that he and the bank misled clients. Investors in the ASTA/MAT municipal bond funds knew how volatile they were, Islam said in interviews and e-mails […]
New York Times
For baseball — not unfamiliar with scandal and bankruptcies, ugly divorces and criminal trials — this promises to be something new: the owners of a marquee team in federal court to face accusations that they enriched themselves and ran their team with illegitimate profits from one of history’s greatest scams. Imagine, for instance, what jury […]