Citi emails: Did Citi execs dupe its own employees about risky investments?

Jennifer Krause Email: "The issue is that clients got duped, and we as FAs (Financial Advisors)  got duped on what we were getting."

Fox Business:

Newly uncovered emails and documents from Citigroup (C: 27.22, -1.55, -5.39%) that FOX Business has obtained reveal that Citi executives were in open insurrection against top management over risky, speculative investments that failed in spectacular fashion in early 2008, even though Citi’s sales force had touted them as plain-vanilla, safe funds to its richest clients.

What's more, Citi’s internal emails and confidential documents show Citi’s own private bankers and financial advisors felt they themselves were duped by their fellow workers about the riskiness of these investments.

That means investors could not possibly know the risks involved because even Citi’s salespeople themselves did not have the complete picture.

The Citi emails provide a rare, and chilling, reminder that Wall Street executives often tout and sell investments even they themselves don’t fully understand. Citi’s private bankers and financial advisors involved with the investments agreed that they should not have been sold, documents show.

Citi has steadfastly maintained it acted appropriately.

“Citi acted appropriately at all times in connection with these investments,” a spokesman for Citigroup tells FOX Business in a statement. “Our disclosures were accurate and complete and the investors who purchased these investments were highly sophisticated and knew of the risks involved.” The bank declined further comment.

Read more on the story and other Citi emails. Click here.