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Pennsylvania accuses financial firms of bond price-fixing
Source: Associated Press
Pennsylvania accuses financial firms of bond price-fixing
By MARC LEVY
May 24, 2019
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s treasury department is accusing about a dozen large financial firms of working together to illegally inflate the price of bonds issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over seven years.
A federal court filing by Pennsylvania Treasurer Joe Torsella late Thursday cites what his office says is evidence from a “cooperating co-conspirator” in a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into price-fixing in the secondary market for bonds issued by government-controlled companies.
Evidence cited in the filing includes brief transcripts of what it says are online chats by traders from various financial institutions that are the largest dealers of the bonds.
In the discussions, the traders allegedly agree to fix bond prices at artificially inflated prices, cheating Pennsylvania and other buyers of the bonds. The price-fixing began in 2009 and lasted through 2015, and violates federal anti-trust law, Torsella’s filing said.
An analysis shows that pricing patterns are consistent with such a price-fixing agreement, the filing said. The “economic fingerprints” of the conspiracy diminished after January 2016, when the cooperating co-conspirator discovered it, it said.
-snip-
By MARC LEVY
May 24, 2019
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s treasury department is accusing about a dozen large financial firms of working together to illegally inflate the price of bonds issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over seven years.
A federal court filing by Pennsylvania Treasurer Joe Torsella late Thursday cites what his office says is evidence from a “cooperating co-conspirator” in a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into price-fixing in the secondary market for bonds issued by government-controlled companies.
Evidence cited in the filing includes brief transcripts of what it says are online chats by traders from various financial institutions that are the largest dealers of the bonds.
In the discussions, the traders allegedly agree to fix bond prices at artificially inflated prices, cheating Pennsylvania and other buyers of the bonds. The price-fixing began in 2009 and lasted through 2015, and violates federal anti-trust law, Torsella’s filing said.
An analysis shows that pricing patterns are consistent with such a price-fixing agreement, the filing said. The “economic fingerprints” of the conspiracy diminished after January 2016, when the cooperating co-conspirator discovered it, it said.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/ebbef67c678b4a51a8820084ada6ee5b
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