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On July 24, 2008, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a civil lawsuit against UBS AG (VTX:UBSN.VX), accusing the Swiss bank of deceptively steering customers into auction-rate securities that this year became impossible to cash out of amid the credit crunch.

The suit, filed in New York state court, accuses UBS of deceptively selling auction-rate securities to customers as cash equivalents. UBS said in a statement it would “vigorously defend” itself against the charges brought by Cuomo.

“It is frustrating that the New York Attorney General has filed this complaint while we have been fully engaged in good faith negotiations with his office to bring liquidity to our clients holding auction rate securities,” the Swiss bank said.

It said it will “vigorously defend ourselves against this complaint.”

Cuomo in addition blamed several senior UBS executives of wrongdoing, saying subpoenaed e-mails detail how they dumped $21 million in personal holdings as the auction-rate market collapsed while still pushing securities to customers.

“UBS also continued the fraud after they knew the fraud was revealed for what it was,” Cuomo said at a news conference. “After the auctions were failing they continued to sell the auction-rate securities.”

He said “UBS is not alone in this scheme, there are other institutions which participated, but UBS is a major player.”

The lawsuit is expected to be the first in a series of cases to arise from the state’s investigation into Wall Street’s handling of the $330 billion auction-rate securities market.

The short-term investments, long touted as being as liquid as cash, lost their value after brokers stopped supporting the market in late January.

On May 8, 2008, two divisions of Zurich, Switzerland-based UBS AG agreed to pay 19 Massachusetts local governments and public agencies more than $35 million to compensate them for auction-rate securities losses.

The agreement comes three months after the Massachusetts attorney general’s office began investigating allegations that UBS Financial Services Inc. and UBS Securities LLC, both of New York, misled towns, cities and state entities regarding whether auction-rate securities were an allowable investment for the municipalities under Massachusetts law.

An auction-rate security is a debt instrument, such as a bond or preferred stock, for which the interest rate or dividend is periodically reset through an auction mechanism.

With the collapse of the auction-rate-securities market earlier this year, assets have been frozen due to lack of market liquidity, and the value of many of the municipal investments has been written down.

“UBS is pleased this matter has been resolved,” said Karina Byrne, a spokeswoman for UBS.