we get more on all this with edward wyatt of the "new york times." and jacob frankel, a former federal prosecutor at the s.e.c. who's now in private practice at shulman rogers. edward, let's start with you. explain the machinery here. why did judge rakoff have to sign off on this deal in the first place once it was negotiated between thering bank and a regulator? >> well, the s.e.c. brought the case in federal district court. it was asking for an injunction which would prevent citi group from violating the securities laws again. because of that and because it's a federal agency it had to get a judge's approval for the decision. now judge rakoff has been a frequent critic of the s.e.c. in these types of settlements. he has raised points in rejecting settlements before saying that the s.e.c. wasn't being strong enough and it wasn't proving anything to him. that's what he said here. there's no way that i can tell that citigroup actually did these things and therefore i don't have any basis to judge whether this settlement is in the public interest. >> su