SEC Asks To See E-mails

The SEC has asked to see all e-mail correspondence, including deleted e-mails, for the period July 1st 1999 to June 30th 2001 sent to or received by research analysts who worked in the biotechnology, media, technolgy and telecommunications sectors.

The latest move by the SEC was no doubt prompted by the recent discovery by New York state attorney general Eliot Spitzer, during his investigation of Merrill Lynch, of incriminating e-mails in which analysts derided stock of firms they had issued bullish research on. Spitzer claims that the analysts issued biased research so that their firms could gain or retain lucrative investment banking fees from the companies covered.

Merrill has already been embarrassed by the e-mail revelations and David Komansky, the firm's Chairman and Chief Executive, has now publicly apologised.

Those interested to know will not have to wait too long to discover whether there will be any other embarrassed faces at some of the top securities firms.