FBI probes 14 firms in subprime crackdown

[EV_Ares]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI has opened investigations into 14 corporations as part of a crackdown on improper subprime lending, agency officials said on Tuesday.

FBI officials told reporters the probes involved potential violations including accounting fraud and insider trading.

They did not identify the companies, but said the probes reached across the industry to include developers, subprime lenders, companies that securitized loans and investment banks that held them.

The cases could lead to potential civil or criminal charges, the officials said.

The FBI said it was investigating the cases with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has opened about three dozen investigations into the subprime market collapse.

Targets of the SEC probe include Swiss bank UBS AG and U.S investment banks Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, as well as bond insurer MBIA. It was not clear whether any of these companies were involved in the FBI investigation.

The SEC, which has formed an internal subprime mortgage task force, is looking at how financial firms priced mortgage-based securities and whether they should have told investors earlier about the declining value of those securities.

(Additional reporting by Karey Wutkowski, reporting by Randall Mikkelsen, editing by Jackie Frank)

Link to article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080129/ts_nm/subprime_crime_dc;_ylt=Al_t1BnY5jNMGKB2IsRKDLGs0NUE