Aidikoff, Uhl & Bakhtiari announces it’s continuing investigation into the ASTA/Mat municipal arbitrage funds launched by Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. and sold through Smith Barney, part of Citigroup’s (NYSE:C) Global Wealth Management Group. The ASTA/Mat funds were first rolled out in 2002 and imploded in February 2008 causing catastrophic losses to investors.
“The Mat funds were marketed to clients as a fixed income product producing a couple of extra points above municipal bonds,” according to Philip M. Aidikoff. “In truth, the Mat funds were a highly risk leveraged bet subjecting clients of the firm to losses that could possibly exceed 100 percent or more of an investors initial capital.”
In May 2010 two Los Angeles based Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panels awarded more than $2.2 million to clients of Aidikoff, Uhl & Bakhtiari representing a return of 100 percent of the clients’ principal losses.
“The municipal arbitrage strategy employed by the Mat funds was risky and exposed investors to 2 times more volatility than the S&P 500 and 7 times more volatility than a traditional portfolio of municipal bonds,” stated Ryan K. Bakhtiari.
Aidikoff, Uhl & Bakhtiari represents retail and institutional investors around the world in securities arbitration and litigation matters. Attorneys for the firm have appeared before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and in numerous state and federal courts to resolve financial disputes between customers, banks, brokerage firms and other financial institutions. More information is available at www.securitiesarbitration.com or to discuss your options please contact an attorney below.