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Wall Street Starts To Panic
-- October 7, 2002


Wall Street has been frantically trying to buy its way out of damaging lawsuits, but, if there's any justice for investors at all, it won't be that easy.

Merrill Lynch shelled out a measly $100 million to settle its case with investigators. Citigroup, which paid an even smaller $5 million fine imposed by the NASD, has offered to physically and philosophically separate its research and investment banking arms -- for real this time.

But state and federal regulators haven't yet settled their investigations of the majority of firms. In fact, they are still hot on the trail and digging up dirt on some of the worst offenders. Today, Massachusetts' Attorney General William Glavin announced that he has uncovered a 'smoking gun' at Credit Suisse First Boston -- an email indicating a quid-pro-quo deal for favorable ratings in exchange for investment banking fees. Plus, there are still several investigations pending against Wall Street's top investment banking and brokerage firms.

In the months ahead, we expect to see more evidence of this fraud come to light. We also hope to see even bigger fines levied against the guilty parties. Plus, we expect to see more wronged investors come forward with their own complaints as the evidence piles up.

Most of all, we hope to see REAL change implemented on Wall Street. Unfortunately, we believe this change will happen only when Wall Street is forced to pay back every dime it has stolen from investors over so many years.


related article: Mass. Regulator: 'Smoking Gun' Found On CSFB Research Conflicts