More Wall Street prosecutions coming?
With Bear Stearns hedge fund managers facing charges of fraud, could other mortgage-backed securities with Wall Street connections be next? Ashley Milne-Tyte reports more criminal charges could be on the way.
A Bear Stearns employee enters company headquarters. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)
More on Wall Street, Crime - Law
TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: It's been one day since federal prosecutors charged two former hedge fund managers at Bear Stearns with fraud. They're accused of deliberately keeping information from investors. Information that could have saved them millions of dollars in the subprime meltdown. Ashley Milne-Tyte has more.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Bear Stearns executives may not be the last to face criminal charges on subprime losses.
Scott Meyers heads the litigation group at Chicago law firm Levenfeld Pearlstein.
Scott Meyers: There certainly are a number of other hedge funds that are in the mortgage-backed securities space. And there are a number of other mortgage originators and loan processors, many of whom have Wall Street connections. So I would not be surprised to see additional prosecutions on Wall Street related to this issue.
But securities lawyer Chris Bebel isn't so sure.
Chris Bebel: The old saying is indict in haste, repent at leisure. These are very complex, detailed cases.
Bebel says it could be very tough to convince a jury the Bear fund managers committed fraud. He says if the government does follow up soon with other indictments, it might regret it later.
In New York, I'm Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
Comments
Comment | Refresh
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Marketplace reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.