BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Oct. 6, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aidikoff, Uhl & Bakhtiari announces the filing of 19 FINRA arbitration claims with damages of more than $16 million during the last several weeks. The arbitration claims were filed against Citigroup Global Markets (NYSE:C) regarding the collapse of its MAT/ASTA and FALCON bond funds.
The arbitrations allege that Citigroup Global Markets marketed and sold these funds to some of its best retail clients as safe, secure, low-risk municipal bond funds that would generate tax free returns of between 5% and 8%. Citigroup also told customers that these funds would be closely monitored in accordance with a sophisticated risk management strategy that would minimize, if not eliminate, any significant downside risk of loss. In fact, Citigroup engaged in highly risky investment practices that resulted in fund losses of more than 75%.
The brokers who sold these funds are not targets of arbitration filings, according to the investors' legal team (www.subprimelosses.com) which includes the firms of Aidikoff, Uhl & Bakhtiari, of Beverly Hills, Calif.; Maddox, Hargett & Caruso, P.C., of Indianapolis, Ind. and New York, N.Y.; Page Perry, LLC, of Atlanta, Ga.; and David P. Meyer & Associates Co., L.P.A., of Columbus, Ohio.
"It appears that brokers were also misled by Citigroup about the true risk of the funds, and that these misrepresentations were passed on to clients of the firm," said attorney Ryan Bakhtiari of Aidikoff, Uhl & Bakhtiari.
As the truth about the Funds' dismal performance began to emerge late in 2007, it became clear that leverage in the portfolio's had increased substantially. Despite this ratcheting up of risk, Citigroup employees assured investors that prices were already recovering which would lead to improved results in the future. By March of 2008, investors learned that they would no longer receive income distributions, nor could they redeem their shares.
"Citigroup blamed unprecedented market conditions, yet a report sent to investors contains tacit admissions that the Funds' failure to follow their own risk management strategies and to take appropriate actions when conditions in the market demanded that they do so resulted in the devastating losses that our clients suffered," added attorney J. Boyd Page of Page Perry.
More information is available at www.subprimelosses.com or by contacting an attorney.