Bear Stearns toxic debt fraud?

Allegations that Bear Stearns was holding too much illiquid subprime or "toxic debt", at inflated prices with insufficient demand to sustain prices. Instead of full disclosure, Bear Stearns put its own financial interests ahead of its shareholders by issuing misleading assurances that minimized any subprime problems and misstating that the investment bank was liquid and diversified, the claim alleges. It alleges that Bear Stearns violated the Florida Investor Protection Act (FIPA) and the rules of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Federal Securities law.
The claim further alleges that there was no real market for Bear Stearns' enormous, high risk, over leveraged subprime holdings at the inflated prices at which they were carried on Bear Stearns' books. Inevitably, the claim argues, inflated values were punctured and the air swept out of Bear Stearns' balance sheet, leaving the South Florida investor holding the proverbial bag.