Auction Rate Securities and UBS

The auction rate securities market is currently undergoing "one of the costliest mis-selling scandals of the credit crisis to date. Thousands of individuals...have been left holding bonds that they cannot sell, despite being told that these investments were the equivalent of cash" (Foley, 2008). Until recently, Wall Street would step in to "buy the bonds at auction if demand was weak, so that holders could cash out," but "amid the spiraling credit crisis, they stopped acting as buyers of last resort and since then almost 60 per cent of auctions have failed" (Foley, 2008). Jonathan Levine, attorney at San Francisco's Girard Gibbs law firm, states, "We think this is one of the biggest frauds on Wall Street in years...People can't retire, small business owners cannot pay payrolls, it is affecting people's

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