Municipal Bond investigations in Italy have resulted in the commencement of criminal proceedings against 4 nominal Banks. The 4 institutions have worldwide operations. The Italian authorities have seized $350,000,000.00 of the institutions' assets to guarantee their ability to pay any resulting fines and forfeitures. The group of 4 are JP Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Depfa. Claudio Gatti, "Italy Seizes Millions in Assets From Four Banks" p. B1, col. 2 (New York Times Nat'l Ed., "Business Day" Section, Tuesday, April 28, 2009). The Insurance industry operations of corporations owned by Deutsche Bank are for one well-documented.
One of the many interesting features of the positions taken by the Italian authorities in the criminal proceedings is that the group of 4 breached Fiduciary Duties. They allegedly sold Municipal Bonds under false pretenses, in sum and in substance, to the Italian City of Milan. The Italian authorities contend that this was a violation of Fiduciary Duties owed to "a nonprofessional customer like Milan". The Fiduciary Duties are required by the Financial Securities Authority in Britain (similar to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), according to the Italian prosecutors who base their position on an opinion authored by the former Chair of the F.S.A. apparently. See id.
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