NEW YORK, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- New York prosecutors have subpoenaed major Wall Street firms for information about packaging and selling subprime mortgages, a published report said Wednesday.
The subpoenas by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office were sent out in late summer to a host of Wall Street firms, including Merrill Lynch & Co., Bear Stearns Cos. and Deutsche Bank AG, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Representatives from Cuomo's office and the three investment banks declined to comment to United Press International.
Prosecutors are looking into how adequately the investment banks reviewed the quality of mortgages before packaging them into products that were then sold to investors, the Journal said.
The subpoenas also seek information about how the debt was pooled into securities, including the banks' relationship with credit-rating firms, the newspaper said.
Prosecutors are trying to determine the relationships among mortgage companies, third-party due-diligence firms, securities firms and credit-rating firms to see if they contributed to the still-unfolding subprime mortgage financial crisis, the Journal said.
Cuomo's office is particularly interested in deals that exhibited high default rates, the newspaper said.
