Federal investigators have opened criminal inquiries into 14 companies as part of a wide-ranging investigation of the subprime mortgage crisis.
CNBC sez they're "looking at accounting fraud, securitization of loans, and insider trading..."
One day they'll stop calling it the "subprime mortgage crisis."
...bit more:
The FBI wouldn't identify the companies under investigation but said that generally the bureau is looking into allegations of fraud in various stages of mortgage securitization, from those who bundled the loans, to the banks that ended up holding them.