corrente

Amy Baldwin of AP via the Miineapolis Star-Tribune here:

Investors trying to determine whether mutual fund companies put shareholders' interests above their own face a difficult task.

After recent charges that four fund companies allowed a hedge fund to make illegal trades, investors understandably want to know how to protect themselves. But there's little they can do to guarantee they're not buying into fund companies that have questionable ethics, said Don Phillips, managing director of fund tracker Morningstar Inc.

"It is hard to know who is [trustworthy], because frankly, what these firms have done is unfathomable," Phillips said.

The companies facing charges by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer are Bank of America's Nations Funds, Banc One, Janus and Strong. The improper trades could have cost investors billions of dollars, Spitzer said.

Go, Eliot!

Say, how's that guy doing over at SEC? The one the Rovelicans installed over heaving ol' Harve over the side on election day, 2002?