This comes from the Washington Post:
Federal regulators charged a Citigroup unit with negligence Wednesday, saying it sold a $1 billion investment product tied to the weakening housing market in 2007 without telling investors it was using the instrument to bet against them.
Citigroup agreed to pay a settlement of $285 million, which will be distributed to investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Under the settlement, which is subject to court approval, Citigroup neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing….
Investors “lost several hundred million dollars,” the SEC said. An agency spokesman would not be more specific. Citigroup reaped fees and trading profits of “at least $160 million,” the SEC said in a court filing.
And Citigroup’s response to all this (no surprise):
“We are pleased to put this matter behind us and are focused on contributing to the economic recovery, serving our clients and growing responsibly,” the firm said.
