NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested 48 foreign exchange brokers late Tuesday in connection with a lengthy probe into securities and currency fraud.
The FBI swarmed on New York City's Two World Financial Center shortly after 3 p.m. ET and took away the traders in handcuffs, people on the scene told CNNfn. The building is mainly occupied by Wall Street brokerage Merrill Lynch, but Merrill Lynch was not home to the arrested brokers.
"It's currency fraud, securities fraud," an agent at the scene of the arrests told Reuters. "It's been a long investigation." The agent asked not to be identified.
The FBI sources said the Wall Street traders will be charged with swindling retail investors of an undisclosed amount of cash over the past year. One source said those arrested would be charged with money laundering and fraud.
NBC reported the defendants scammed retail investors into thinking they were buying multimillion-dollar foreign exchange trades when it is not possible for those types of investors to participate in such deals.
A Reuters reporter on the 36th floor of Two World Financial Center witnessed FBI agents removing about 10 boxes from one company's office.
A spokesman for the FBI declined comment but said the agency will hold a briefing on Wednesday. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney and the Treasury Department also declined comment.
Among those arrested were three brokers at the inter-dealer brokerage ICAP, which operates at a different location, a different individual told Reuters. An employee of currency broker Madison Deane and Associates Inc. said that seven employees at that firm were arrested. People familliar with the arrest told Reuters that at least two other firms were involved and said none of the companies targeted were household names outside of the securities industry but are well known and regarded in the Wall Street community.
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