NEW YORK–LAWFUEL – The Law Firm Newswire – Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll is currently investigating Citigroup Inc. (“Citigroup” or the “Company”) to determine whether the fiduciaries of the Citigroup 401(k) Plan (the “Plan”) may have engaged in potential violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”).
Citigroup recently announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated November 5, 2007, estimated declines of up to $11 billion in the fair value of “sub-prime related direct exposures in its Securities and Banking (S&B) business.” According to another SEC filing Citigroup has also provided $7.6 billion of emergency financing to provide liquidity to seven structured investment vehicles (“SIVs”) that the Company operates. Although Citigroup does not consolidate the assets of the SIVs, according to a recent report, the SEC is reviewing how the Company accounted for the SIVs.
“Our investigation focuses on whether the fiduciaries of the Plan breached duties of loyalty and prudence by authorizing the investment of Plan assets in Citigroup stock when the stock was no longer a suitable investment for the Plan because of the Company’s sub-prime related direct exposures and liquidity problems of the SIVs,” says Marc Machiz, head of the Employee Benefits practice for Cohen, Milstein. Mr. Machiz served as the chief employee benefits lawyer at the United States Department of Labor prior to joining the firm in 2000.
Contact us if you are currently a participant or beneficiary of the Plan who is invested in Citigroup stock and would like to talk to us about our investigation, please contact us by phone or email below.
Bruce Rinaldi, Esq. brinaldi@cmht.com
Abigail Gustafson, Paralegal agustafson@cmht.com
Toll free 1-888-240-0775
Cohen Milstein is a leading law firm in the Employee Benefits field and is lead counsel or co-lead counsel in a wide-variety of class action cases alleging pension and welfare plan abuses by employers and fiduciaries under ERISA. For additional information on this filing, go to www.cmht.com .
