The crowd of reporters on hand when U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of Manhattan federal court grilled attorneys from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Citigroup last week about their proposed $285 million settlement — not to the mention the spilled ink and megabytes on Rakoff’s pointed questions about the settlement’s fairness — show the public has certainly taken an interest in the deal to resolve allegations Citi deceived investors in a mortgage-backed CDO vehicle. But the SEC is arguing that the public interest is not something Rakoff should — or even can — consider when deciding whether to approve the deal.
Read more: Can Rakoff consider ‘public interest’ in Citi/SEC settlement? — On the Case
