DOJ sues banking giant for fraud

The Justice Department is suing UBS and several of its US affiliates for allegedly scamming investors in connection with the bank’s sale of residential mortgage-backed securities during the run-up to the financial crisis.

“Investors who bought RMBS from UBS suffered catastrophic losses, which not only caused direct harm to those investors, but also contributed to the financial crisis of 2008,” said US Attorney Richard P. Donoghue. “The filing of this complaint makes clear that we will continue to hold financial institutions fully accountable for their conduct and will aggressively pursue financial fraud.”

The lawsuit alleges that UBS misled investors and withheld “crucial information” about the loans in its mortgage securities, according to US Attorney Byung J. Pak.

“UBS allegedly placed a higher priority on selling bonds and making profits than accurately representing the quality of the underlying loans to investors,” Pak said. “These practices resulted in massive losses to investors, harmed homeowners, and ultimately jeopardized the banking system.”

According to the lawsuit, between 2006 and 2007, UBS misled investors about the quality of billions of dollars in subprime and Alt-A mortgages backing 40 RMBS deals. The Justice Department claimed that UBS intentionally concealed the fact that the loans “were much riskier and much more likely to default than UBS represented,” the DOJ said. Eventually, all 40 mortgage-backed securities suffered substantial losses.

UBS, for its part, denied any wrongdoing.

“The DOJ’s claims are not supported by the facts or the law,” the Switzerland-based bank said in a statement. “UBS will contest any such complaint vigorously in the interest of its shareholders.” The bank said it was “fully prepared” to defend itself in court.

UBS has already paid hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve RMBS-based lawsuits filed by the state of New York and the National Credit Union Administration.