Dozens of US banks face fraud charges

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121735&sectionid=3510203


The US federal government has targeted around 30 financial companies in new cases of potential fraud.

A US federal court is probing a criminal case involving 29 bankers with prominent financial institutes including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, UBS, Wachovia Bank and Societe General which are suspected of co-conspiring in the pricing of certain municipal derivatives, Reuters reported.

None of the individuals or institutions on the list have been criminally charged yet and the identity of the bankers have not been made public,

The issue of co-conspirators was mentioned at a court hearing on March 26 when a federal prosecutor and defense lawyers argued over a review of more than 125 million pages of documents and 670,000 audio tapes in evidence, the report adds.

In 2006, the US Justice Department, Internal Revenue Service, and Securities and Exchange Commission launched a sweeping investigation into how certain derivatives had been priced.

The investigation has gained momentum in the last few months as a number of counties and cities sued the companies involved.