European insurance and financial services giant Allianz has been hit with a more than $6bn fine over fraudulent conduct within its US asset management unit (AGI US) exposed at the outset of the Covid pandemic.
The Allianz settlement with the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considered to be one of the largest in corporate history. According to the SEC, which brought charges against Allianz and three former senior portfolio managers at the firm, Allianz engaged in a "massive" fraudulent scheme that concealed the immense downside risks of a complex options trading strategy known as Structured Alpha. After the Covid-19 market crash of March 2020 exposed the fraudulent scheme, the strategy lost billions of dollars. Investor documents were rewritten to dow...
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