The Justice Department announced on Monday that UBS has agreed to pay $1.4 billion in penalties for allegedly defrauding investors by selling mortgage-backed securities that blew up during the Great Recession.
The settlement resolves the final case brought by the DOJ to investigate the role of Wall Street firms in the 2008 financial crisis.
"The substantial civil penalty in this case serves as a warning to other players in the financial markets who seek to unlawfully profit through fraud that we will hold them accountable no matter how long it takes," Breon Peace, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
The DOJ filed a civil action in November 2018 against UBS, alleging the Wall Street bank defrauded investors by knowingly making false and misleading statements to buyers of dozens of residential mortgage-backed securities issued in 2006 and 2007.
"UBS' conduct in this case played a significant role in causing a financial crisis that harmed millions of Americans," said Ryan Buchanan, US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.
In a statement, UBS described the agreement as a settlement of a "legacy matter" and said it has been fully provisioned in prior periods.
Other Wall Street firms including Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were previously hit by even larger fines to reach toxic mortgage settlements with the US government.
All told, prosecutors say they leveled more than $36 billion in fines for conduct that fueled the 2008 financial crisis, including from banks and ratings firms.
