The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank after the California lender was taken over by regulators last week amid a historic run on its deposits, the Wall Street Journal reported. The separate probes are in their preliminary phases and may not lead to charges or allegations of wrongdoing. Prosecutors and regulators often open investigations after financial institutions or public companies suffer big, unexpected losses. Shares in SVB Financial Group, which formerly owned the bank, fell 60% last week and have been stopped from trading since Friday. The investigations are also examining stock sales that SVB Financial’s officers made days before the bank failed. The Justice Department probe involves the department’s fraud prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco.
