Though multi-billion dollar auction rate securities settlements were announced to great fanfare some months ago, litigation involving auction rate securities continues to mount (as I previously noted, here). Two recently filed proceedings highlight the fact that notwithstanding the settlements, many investors’ grievances are yet to be addressed.
As a result, while regulatory authorities
When the various broker dealers and investment banks recently announced their agreements with government regulators to buy back auction rate securities, the announcements raised questions about the continuing need for the pending auction rate securities litigation. But, at least based on a recently filed lawsuit, it now appears that the settlements may have opened the
Since the earliest days of the subprime litigation wave, one of the recurring questions has been whether the wave would spread beyond the financial sector. The question remains, but allegations in a new securities lawsuit suggest that circumstances arising from the subprime crisis are affecting a diverse variety of companies, and by extension the claims
As the subprime litigation wave has churned on, many of the more recently filed lawsuits have been similar to previously filed suits. But amidst the repetition, there has also been some innovation, or at least variation, as a result of which the subprime litigation wave has continued to evolve. Two recently filed subprime and credit
After New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced (here) earlier today that Citigroup had agreed to a blockbuster settlement regarding auction rate securities, it certainly seemed like the deal would put pressure on other investment banks to adopt similar measures. So perhaps it was not unexpected later in the day that Merrill Lynch
Next up as targets in the ever-growing wave of subprime-related class action lawsuits are closed-end funds that issued auction preferred securities. The auction marketplace for these securities, like the market for auction rate municipal bonds, has broken down, and investors who bought the securities are now suing the closed end funds that issued the instruments.
Add corporate debt to the type of lending caught up in the current credit crisis, and add both commercial real estate financing companies and private equity firms (or at least one that recently completed a high profile public offering) to the kinds of companies now ensnared in the current wave of lawsuits. The latest round of
Regular readers know that I have been tracking subprime-related class-action lawsuits (here). In a recent post, I noted my interest in trying to develop a similar list of subprime-related derivative lawsuits. In response to my request, a number of readers supplied helpful information, and as a result I have been able to develop
Add E*Trade and SunTrust Bank to the growing list of companies that have been sued in purported class action lawsuits on behalf of auction rate securities investors against companies that sold them the instruments. The plaintiffs’ attorney’s April 2, 2008 press release regarding the E*Trade auction rate securities lawsuit can be found here, and
The headlines on the business pages have been dominated in recent days by the news of the blockbuster Citigroup and UBS auction rate securities settlements (about which refer