Citigroup must pay a total of $950,000 to an investor and two trustees who lost money in a series of municipal bond funds that plunged in value between 2007 and 2008, a securities arbitration panel has ruled. The ruling on Thursday by a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel in New York is the most recent in a series of losses for Citigroup in cases related to leveraged municipal bond arbitrage funds sold by Citigroup Global Markets to high net-worth investors.
Daniel and Catherine Murphy, trustees for a family trust, filed the claim in 2009 along with an individual investor, Joseph Yurman. They alleged that Citigroup was negligent and breached its fiduciary duty to them, according to a ruling posted Friday on FINRA's arbitration database. They requested a total of nearly $1.4 million in damages, plus other costs, according to the ruling.
Citigroup sold the funds through an entity called MAT Finance LLC. The MAT, or municipal arbitrage trust funds, borrowed at low short-term rates and invested proceeds in longer-term muni bonds. But the strategy was ultimately shown to be flawed and left investors with losses of as much as 80 percent.
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