(Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay almost $180 million to settle a U.S. regulator's allegations that it defrauded clients of two failed hedge funds by telling them the investments were low-risk.
Citigroup units made false and misleading statements to investors about the funds, which raised almost $3 billion from 2002 to 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement Monday. Before the funds collapsed in 2008, Citigroup had described them as "safe" and "bond substitutes," the SEC said.
"Advisers at these Citigroup affiliates were supposed to be looking out for investors' best interests, but falsely assured them they were making safe investments even when the funds were on the brink of disaster," Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC's enforcement division, said in the statement.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
