Citi Joins Goldman And JPMorgan In Settling Fraudulent And Misleading CDO Practices: Wristslap Costs $285 Million

And so Citi becomes the third firm after Goldman and JPM to put all their gross CDO criminal (wait, allegedly, they neither admitted nor denied) activity behind them with a $285 million wristslap.

• Citigroup will pay USD 285mln to settle SEC charges for misleading investors about selling CDOs related to housing market, according to SEC
• Citigroup's main US broker-dealer unit misled investors about USD 1bln CDO tied to US housing market, in which Citigroup bet against investors.
• Citigroup bet against investors as housing market showed signs of distress, SEC said
• CDO defaulted, Citigroup made $160m in fees/trading profits
• $285m will be returned to investors, SEC says in statement
• SEC also faults Citigroup employee Brian Stoker and Credit Suisse portfolio manager Samir H. Bhatt

As Bloomberg reminds us, "Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to pay $550 million to resolve claims it failed to tell investors in a mortgage-linked product that a hedge fund betting against the CDO helped select the underlying assets. JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay $153.6 million to resolve similar claims related to its sale of a CDO in 2007."

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