Right before the stock market fell off a cliff in September, the news media were filled with stories about the regulators forcing investment banks to settle the claims of individual investors whose assets were stuck in frozen auction rate securities. It turns out, however, that many investors have fallen through the cracks.
Obviously, the largest group of investors that have been ignored are large institutional and corporate investors that have typically been excluded from auction rate settlements notwithstanding the fact that they were not provided with full disclosure and material information was withheld from them. Most of these investors will have to decide whether to take legal action in order to protect themselves and their shareholders.