SEC Challenges Judge in Citigroup Case

The SEC is fighting back against a judge who rejected the agency’s deal with Citigroup (C) over its marketing of a mortgage security, taking the case to an appeals court.

In a 15-page order last month, Judge Jed Rakoff eviscerated the SEC for its deal with Citigroup, which makes the bank pay $285 million but does not make it admit wrongdoing. Rakoff rejected the deal.

But now the SEC is fighting back, claimingthat the judge made a “legal error” in rejecting the claim.

“We believe the district court committed legal error by announcing a new and unprecedented standard that inadvertently harms investors by depriving them of substantial, certain and immediate benefits. For this reason, today we filed papers seeking review of the decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

We believe the court was incorrect in requiring an admission of facts ? or a trial ? as a condition of approving a proposed consent judgment, particularly where the agency provided the court with information laying out the reasoned basis for its conclusions. Indeed, in the case against Citigroup, the SEC filed suit after a thorough investigation, the findings of which were described in extensive detail in a 21-page complaint.”

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