Prosecutors close to filing criminal charges against Bear fund

Business News IN BRIEF

*Prosecutors in New York were last night close to filing criminal charges against two high-profile fund managers from Bear Stearns, who oversaw the two hedge funds whose collapse last summer was the first outward sign of the severity of the credit crisis. Securities fraud charges against Ralph Cioffi, a high-flying bond expert, and colleague Matthew Tannin would be the weightiest indictments so far to emerge from co-ordinated state and federal investigations of the mortgage and credit markets. The two men left Bear Stearns in the months after the collapse of their $1.6bn (817m) funds, brought low by investments in sub-prime mortgage bonds, and Bear Stearns itself has since collapsed and been bought by JPMorgan Chase. Civil actions against Bear Stearns - including one by Barclays - accuse the company of misleading investors over the contents of the two controversial hedge funds.

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