国际英语新闻：Wall Street's top firms under closer scrutiny

BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Federal prosecutors in New York are launching a broad criminal investigation into some of the major Wall Street financial firms to determine whether they misled the investors, media reported Friday.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Deutsche Bank (DB) and UBS (UBS) have received civil subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a person familiar with the matter.

They join fellow Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), which are believed to be under the scrutiny by U.S. prosecutors and regulators.

The exterior of the world headquarters for Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated is seen in New York, May 19, 2008.

The person said that the investigation included mortgage-bond deals, that it was in an early stage and that it might not necessarily lead to criminal charges against all of the firms.

Separately, New York authorities began an investigation into whether eight banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse (CS), Citigroup, UBS, Credit Agricole and Merrill Lynch, misled rating agencies with regard to mortgage-derivative deals, a separate source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The intensity of the civil and criminal investigations has increased since Goldman Sachs was charged last month with fraud by the finance industry regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and politicians stepped up their attacks on Wall Street's activities.