Securities Fraud, Lawsuit | featured news

An arbitration panel ordered Citigroup Inc to pay a group of investors $54.1 million for losses from municipal securities funds that cratered between 2007 and 2008, the biggest award yet involving the funds in a long series of legal claims against the bank.

Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, the fugitive former chief executive of Comverse Technology Inc, agreed to pay nearly $54 million to resolve civil litigation brought by the U.S. government over the backdating of stock options, court papers show.

American International Group Inc. agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running securities lawsuit alleging that the company several years ago engaged in insurance bid-rigging and inflated its stock price and insurance reserves.

The attorney general accused the bank and two executives of securities fraud. Meanwhile, the bank settled an S.E.C. claim for $150 million.

Attorney General Jerry Brown says customers were misled into believing that auction-rate securities were safe. Wells Fargo disputes that, and says it aided customers hit by the collapse of the market.

California today sued investment subsidiaries of Wells Fargo & Co.