Bank of America Stocks Down over Fraud Charges

DoJ filed civil complaint over mortgage-backed security sales

Shares of Bank of America on Wednesday were down over 2% in early afternoon trading, after the bank was charged with securities fraud by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Justice Department late on Tuesday announced it had filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court in Charlotte, N.C., charging Bank of America with making "false and misleading statements," when it sold over $850 million in mortgage-backed securities in February 2008 to a group of investors that included the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and Wachovia Bank.

Wachovia Bank and its parent company were acquired by Wells Fargo in December 2008.