James Delahunty
26 Oct 2012 15:07
Securities regulator fines Citigroup $2 million.
It was charged with breaking state securities laws in Massachusetts over the improper release of confidential information about Facebook before the social network's IPO. Mark Mahaney, the senior analyst involved in the case, is no longer with the firm and a junior analyst has also been fired.
This junior analyst had allegedly sent the bank's confidential views on investment risks and revenue estimates for Facebook to TechCrunch. The incident occurred three weeks prior to Facebook's IPO.
"We take our internal policies and procedures very seriously and have taken the appropriate action," Citigroup commented after the conclusion of the Massachusetts case.
Citigroup was one of a group of underwriters of Facebook's $16 billion IPO.