I seriously hope, that this is a start of a serious new trend
... a trend in actual accountability ...
Citi Ruling Could Chill SEC, Street Legal Pacts
by Jean Eaglesham and Chad Bray, wsj.com -- Nov 29, 2011
A decades-old blueprint used by many federal agencies to settle charges of wrongdoing with companies and avoid court was challenged by a U.S. judge, in a ruling that legal experts said could have a significant impact on future law-enforcement efforts against Wall Street firms.In a sharply worded order, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff rejected a $285 million deal by Citigroup Inc. to settle civil fraud charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission as "neither fair, nor reasonable, nor adequate, nor in the public interest."
The deal was agreed to earlier this year, after the SEC accused the New York company of selling investors slices of a $1 billion mortgage-bond deal called Class V Funding III, without disclosing it was betting against $500 million of those assets.
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Here's the 'egghead' version of what it all means ...
N.Y. Judge Rejects SEC's $285M Deal With CitiGroup as 'Unfair, Unreasonable'
PBS News Hour
uploaded by PBSNewsHour on Nov 28, 2011