UBS Case Marks Widening Criminal Probe Into Municipal Bonds
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A UBS AG banker wanted to win an investment deal with a Rhode Island municipality that was to be awarded to the highest bidder. Instead of offering the best price, he secretly split half of UBS’s $1.4 million profit with another bank to get the rival to back off.
The 2002 transaction with the unidentified municipality, described in documents tied to UBS’s $160 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, shows the expanding arc of a criminal investigation that has taken more than four years.