US Prosecutors in NY and NJ Add Lawyers to Probe Financial Firms
Federal prosecutors in New York and New Jersey are adding more lawyers to investigate financial firms for possible fraud and misrepresentation.
U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia of Manhattan told Bloomberg he has added three prosecutors to his white-collar crime unit, for a total of 20 prosecutors, and assigned eight lawyers to a new mortgage fraud division.
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie of Newark has added a prosecutor to his 10-person securities-fraud unit, the story says. Meanwhile U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell of Brooklyn has assigned 12 prosecutors to work on securities fraud cases and has created a subprime task force.
Campbell, who served on the Justice Department’s Enron task force, sees similarities. “How valuation questions were handled or how these structured finance vehicles were put together, for example, look very familiar,” he told Bloomberg.
He is reportedly investigating whether investors at Lehman and UBS were misled. He also obtained indictments of two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers and charged two former Suisse Group traders in investor fraud cases.
The lawyer representing Lehman in its bankruptcy, Harvey Miller, says the company is the subject of grand jury investigations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey.
Hat tip to the AmLaw Daily.
