Liz Moyer, 29 August 2006
Louisiana State Attorney General Charles Foti is trying to force UBS, the Wall Street investment bank, to turn over vast quantities of information on its trading, stock lending and other activities related to shares of software firm Sedona.
The Louisiana Department of Justice filed documents in a state court Tuesday to compel UBS to hand over the information in ten days.
The state is probing naked short-selling, which is the practice of selling shares short without borrowing them. It is an issue that has already been raised in reference to Sedona Sedona. in an ongoing civil lawsuit against a number of brokers and hedge funds and in a Securities and Exchange Commission federal court case filed in April in New York against one brokerage and several individuals.
Several other states, including Illinois and Connecticut, are said to be looking into the issue. Possible abuses in stock trading and in the stock-lending business, which brings in $10 billion in annual profit for Wall Street firms, has started to attract the attention of federal regulators as well.
Foti’s exhaustive list of demands for documents include all of UBS’ electronic and paper communications files relating to Sedona stock, its trading records, monthly stock inventories, stock loan documentation, information regarding commission payments, customer account records and research done in house related to Sedona.
