Thursday, July 31, 2008

UBS Suspends Fixed Income Chief During State and Federal Auction Rate Securities Probe

UBS suspended David Shulman, its U.S. fixed income unit head and global head of municipal securities, at a time when the Swiss bank faces state and federal probes into its sales of auction-rate securities, a person familiar with the situation said.

UBS declined to comment, citing its policy on personnel matters.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Thursday sued UBS, accusing it of committing a "multibillion-dollar fraud" by steering clients into auction-rate securities even after there were signs these markets were no longer as safe or liquid as cash.

The lawsuit said at least seven UBS executives dumped $21 million in auction-rates held in personal accounts in December, as auctions began to fail and unwanted securities piled up in the bank's own inventory.

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