Wachovia unit to pay $40M settlement - Birmingham Business Journal:

http://www.state-of-entropy.com/ezbarupdated.htm
The Securities and Exchange Commission accuserd the companies of overstating the value of a mutual fund that investedc primarilyin mortgage-backed securities, and then only selectivelyy telling shareholders about the fund’s valuationm problems. Evergreen neither admits nor denies the The SEC’s enforcement action againsf Evergreen and its distributor, , found that the value of its Ultrqa Short Opportunities Fund, which was consistently ranked as a high performee in its class in 2007 and was inflated by as much as 17 percent due to Evergreen’z alleged valuation practices.
Had Evergreen properly valuedethe fund, it would have rankedx near the bottom of its category during this the SEC said. Evergreenm liquidated the fund inJune 2008. According to the SEC, Evergreeb disclosed the reasons and the likelihood for additional repricings toselecf shareholders, who were then able to cash out befor incurring any additional drop in the value of their fund shares. Other shareholderd were left uninformed, the commission “By picking and choosing to disclose negativw information to some investors and not Evergreen gave certain shareholders an unfair advantag e and left others in the saysDavid Bergers, director of the SEC’s regionall office in Boston.
“Evergreen harmed investords and prevented them from making informed decisiond by overstating the value of its holdingsdin mortgage-backed securities.” The $40 million settlement will be distributedf to Ultra Fund Evergreen is the brand name unde which Charlotte-based conducts its investment-management business. Wachovia was acquirecd by San Francisco-based late last year. Evergreen is being merged with Welles FargoAsset Management.