Welcome to Wall Street, Citigroup contributes $75 million to SEC as they did nothing wrong

Yes America, welcome to the new era of Corporate America and specifically the manner in which Wall Street operates. Another SEC suit settled for multi millions of dollars and yet no one admits to any wrongdoing. Citigroup simply writes out a check for $75 million and you can "bank" on the fact that business will continue as usual within the TARP bailed out Wall Street firm.

DO NOT TRY this at home as these are professionals. Stick it to the entire globe, get bailed out by the U.S. taxpayer and then simply write a check to the SEC. Also, DO NOT TRY this if you have a conscience as it will only work if you have no heart, sole, ethics and would sell your mother to get the deal done.

Citigroup to pay $75 million to settle SEC charges

it misled investors over subprime investments

(By Zachary Goldfarb-Washington Post)

Citigroup, one of the nation's largest banks, agreed Thursday to pay $75 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint that it misled investors about $40 billion of its holdings in sub-prime mortgage investments that sent the bank to the edge of collapse.

After its $550 million settlement with Goldman Sachs, the SEC's resolution of the case with Citigroup represents a third major Wall Street institution this year agreeing to regulatory sanctions for behavior that was at the core of the financial crisis. Citigroup received one of the largest taxpayer bailouts.

Notably, the SEC complaint names two senior Citigroup executives -- former chief financial officer Gary L. Crittenden and former investor relations head Arthur Tildesley -- and alleges that they concealed important information from investors in regulatory disclosures in the second and third quarters of 2007. Crittenden agreed to pay $100,000 and Tildesley agreed to pay $80,000. Previous complaints against major financial firms have not charged high-level executives.

"Even as late as fall 2007, as the mortgage market was rapidly deteriorating, Citigroup boasted of superior risk management skills in reducing its subprime exposure to approximately $13 billion. In fact, billions more in ... subprime exposure sat on its books undisclosed to investors," said SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami in a statement. "The rules of financial disclosure are simple -- if you choose to speak, speak in full and not in half-truths."

The SEC settlement marks the first time a major Wall Street bank has faced regulatory punishment for hiding from investors its exposure to the subprime mortgage market.

But the charges facing Citigroup are less serious than those Goldman faced. Goldman was accused of fraud, of deliberately misleading clients about a sub-prime mortgage investment the bank was trying to sell them. By contrast, the SEC is alleging that Citigroup was negligent in not providing important information about its sub-prime mortgage holding to investors, but did not deliberately intend to mislead its shareholders. Link to Washington Post