Citigroup Finds Obeying the Law Is Too Darn Hard: Jonathan Weil
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Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Five times since 2003 the Securitiesand Exchange Commission has accused Citigroup Inc.’s mainbroker-dealer subsidiary of securities fraud. On each occasionthe company’s SEC settlements have followed a familiar pattern.
Citigroup neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s claims. Andthe company consented to the entry of either a court injunctionor an SEC order barring it from committing the same types ofviolations again. Those “obey-the-law” directives haven’tmeant much. The SEC keeps accusing Citigroup of breaking thesame laws over and over, without ever attempting to enforce theprior orders. The SEC’s most recent complaint against Citigroup,filed last month, is no different.