The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has referred forged comment letters it received on a proposed derivatives trading rule to the Justice Department, CFTC chairman Gary Gensler said today.
Bloomberg reports a Boston-based public relations firm, the Dewey Square Group, confirmed yesterday that it had been hired to send comment letters to regulators on behalf of a client it wouldn't identify. The firm said it didn't know that the letters were fraudulent and blamed a subcontractor, Little Rock, Arkansas- based Goggans Inc.
Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. was among the financial companies that lobbied Congress on the issue raised in the letters, ownership of derivatives clearinghouses, during the debate over the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul last year. Nasdaq's chief spokesman said yesterday that the company would have no comment on whether it had hired Dewey Square.
