Steamroller Cuomo Squeezes Int'l Banks for Big Bucks
Andrew Cuomo's threats against major financial institutions are paying off. According to the International Herald Tribune, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank have settled with state negotiators and will buy back at least $12.5 billion in auction-rate securities and pay $162.5 million in fines.
The three banks were among several whose securities auctions failed earlier this year, causing their worth to plummet.
The banks were then besieged with class-action suits and state prosecutions on behalf of customers who claimed their reliable profitability of such funds had been overstated to them by the banks.
Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were among the "downstream" banks on which the Telegraph (U.K.) recently said Cuomo's "investigators are now understood to be focussing their efforts."
Looks like they got the message. Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain said in a statement that he wanted to "thank" Cuomo and North American Securities Administrators Association President Karen Tyler "for their leadership and would also like to thank all of the regulators for their efforts in this process."
Moral: Andrew Cuomo is a fuckin' steamroller.
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