Spitzer Vows to Continue Crusade Against Banks

February 25, 2004, 1:00 a.m. EST 1 Min Read

No one is above the law, New York and Massachusetts top regulators charged yesterday.

Railing against what he called the Bush Administrations pattern of protecting special interests, including national banks, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer promised to continue his probe into fund units run by banks, Reuters reports.

"In case after case, [Bush and his top cabinet members] are not there when real people need them," Spitzer said.

Separately yesterday, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said his own probe into market timing and late trading might implicate corporations and pension plans.

"We hold mutual fund companies responsible, but we also have to reinforce on those that make decisions for other employees or workers that they, too, have a fiduciary duty," Galvin said. It takes "two to trade," he added.

Spitzer made his remarks at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. Galvin spoke before a Reuters Fund Summit in Boston.

An Ongoing Probe

Although the national press seems to be losing interest in the mutual fund scandal in recent weeks, Galvin promised that he and other regulators would not stop. "The reason the mutual fund cases have taken on such resonance is that they affect peoples futures their lifetime goals and their college plans," he said.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.