Caribbean Net News – The UK Serious Fraud Office is investigating sales of credit-default swaps and structured-finance products, including collateralized debt obligations, prior to the credit crisis, following up an earlier investigation into a hedge fund and a related British Virgin Islands-registered company.

The SFO is looking into whether banks sold such products with flawed valuations, said Sam Jaffa, a spokesman for the government agency in London. No specific companies or credit rating agencies have been targeted under the investigation, he said.

“We’re looking generically at what might give us a cause for concern or a possible lead for finding out more,” Jaffa said in an e-mail Monday. “There’s no suggesting that across- the-board valuations were flawed. However, how valuations are arrived at, what is bundled into the funds and how they were sold are areas of interest.”

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