Trumping on a Pipe Dream

[BullNBear52]

Prosecutors name 7 in Citigroup probe 2 hours, 3 minutes ago

MILAN (Reuters) - Rome prosecutors have named seven Citigroup employees in a probe into a controversial trade in euro zone government bonds carried out by the U.S. banking group last year, a legal source said on Friday.

Citigroup was not immediately available for comment.

On Aug. 2, Citigroup sold bonds worth 12.4 billion euros ($14.8 billion), causing sharp price swings, before it quickly bought back 3.8 billion euros' worth of debt. Much of the trade was completed over Italy-based bond trading platform MTS.

Prosecutors are investigating possible breach of Italy's market-rigging laws.

The Rome inquiry began in February when market regulator Consob sent documents about the trade to prosecutors.

Citigroup has said it regretted the trade because it did not meet the company's standards. It has said it did not manipulate the market. ($1=.8397 Euro)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=5&u=/nm/20050708/bs_nm/financial_citigro...