Credit Suisse First Boston Fined $100 Million
A couple of people wrote in to note that Credit Suisse First Boston, which was the underwriter for VA Linux ? ' IPO, has been fined $100 million for actions they took in that and other high-tech IPO's during the stock market boom. CSFB allocated shares of certain IPO's to customers who made kickbacks to CSFB. Here's their side of the story. There's also an additional statement by the regulators and CSFB's settlement agreement (PDF).
Wealth measured in stock is purely a matter of belief and confidence. If everyone believes your stocks are worth something, then they will be willing to pay a price for them.
If circumstances change and confidence goes, then people no longer believe your stocks are worth anything and so no-one will pay any more. The upshot? Your wealth has evaporated.
Of course, a counter argument would be that, with stocks, you never had any wealth in the first place. You merely had the potential to try and convert paper figures into reality.
Cheers,
Ian
Okay, so they (finally) nailed CSFB. How about the other side of that transaction? All those clients that made all those millions - they just live happily after? From the news releases, CSFB was stupid enough to keep records in nice spreadsheets, so it should be easy to identify and fine the clients too.
The cynical view says it won't happen - the brokers like to keep the clients happy.