Sun Life Unit Under Fire on Three Fronts

The mutual fund arm of Sun Life Financial Inc. is being investigated by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office, raising the number of regulators looking into the firm’s activity to three.

The Globe and Mail reports that because of possible market timing, the unit, Massachusetts Financial Services Co., is under probe from Spitzer’s office and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Massachusetts Securities Division is also investigating MFS for market timing, but is probing even further. It is seeking whether company officials disguised their identities to help the trades go through.

Sun Life admitted Monday that the SEC is considering charging it for providing "false and misleading" information regarding market timing in 11 of its funds.

Dating back to 1924, MFS is the oldest fund business in the United States. It is also the 11 th largest, managing around $134 billion in assets.

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