A civil case against Citigroup (NYSE:C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), and other, was given the go ahead by a federal judge concerning an alleged conspiracy in a bid rigging scheme contracts and derivatives related to municipal investments.
The suits were brought by Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, and spokeswoman Nanci Nishimura said concerning the ruling that it was “really significant” because “everyone is on notice now that there was plausible evidence of a bid-rigging conspiracy.”
Nishimura added this about the rulings: “Defendants’ conspiracy involved, but was not limited to, allocating the market for municipal derivatives amongst themselves, rigging the process by which the U.S. public and non-profit entities acquire municipal derivatives, sharing their illegal gains through kickbacks to one another, and making other secret, undisclosed arrangements.
There were over thirty original defendants in the case, in which 11 of them were dismissed based on guidelines originally written by the former direction of the tax-exempt bond office of the IRS, where the parameters are generally set to detect and identify fake bids.
Yesterday a similar ruling was made with smaller group of defendants over the same issue.
Along with Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) are also included in the giant financial institutions which will have the civil suit brought against them.
