Monday, November 8, 2010

"Citi Clients Not As Understanding As Firm Would’ve Thought About Funds That Lost Them Their Entire Investment..." (C)

Bess is a master. It's not just headlines with a whiff o'allium. Not just writing that flows.
She is also taking tags to a new level!
From DealBreaker:
From 2002 to 2007, Citi raised $2.8 billion from clients to invest in a couple of funds called MAT Finance LLC, which invested in municipal bonds and was eventually leveraged 8:1 and Falcon, which invested in mortgage debt. Despite the former being marketed as “an attractive alternative to a bond index” and the latter receiving an S&P rating “equivalent to safe, medium-term government bonds,” anyone who bet on the funds lost what might be characterized as a metric ass-ton of their money. 
For instance, the funds a team of brokers from Smith Barney put their clients in fell an impressive 80% to 97% from May 2007 to March 2008. Though Citi claims no foul play and offered to cover approximately one-eighth of clients’ losses, the SEC still felt the need to launch an investigation into whether or not the bank’s employees adequately disclosed the funds’ risks and/or mismanaged them....MORE

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