STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPRs business news starts with two hedge fund managers acquitted.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: This was the first major trial in a case related to the financial crisis. A jury found Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of fraud. The men ran hedge funds at the now-defunct Bear Stearns investment bank. They invested in mortgage-related securities and the funds collapsed.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Investors lost more than a billion dollars and soon after the whole bank collapsed. The government tried to claim the men mislead investors, even though they knew the market was going bad.
The government's first effort to prosecute individuals for contributing to the financial crisis ended in failure. A jury found former Bear Stearns executives Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of fraud. The two men invested in subprime mortgage-related securities, and the funds collapsed, costing investors more than $1 billion.