“Securities regulators, signaling their intent to pursue stock-research conflict cases up Wall Street’s chain of command, are seeking e-mails and other data from more than 50 research executives, investment bankers and chief executive officers, according to people familiar with the matter,” writes Susanne Craig in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“Faced with political pressure to pursue regulatory charges against senior executives as well as the analysts and the firms themselves, regulators are seeking evidence that the supervisors, bankers and executives were aware that analysts’ research reports on stocks could have been influenced by investment-banking considerations, the people say.”

“The requests were sent out late last week to 12 securities firms by the National Association of Securities Dealers, the New York Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose requests came in the form of subpoenas. One official familiar with the scope of the request compared it to the “shock and awe” bombing campaign that the U.S. threatened to use at the start of its invasion of Iraq.”

“The information request is the most far-reaching yet by regulators and seeks data from nearly every major Wall Street CEO, including Citigroup Inc.’s Sanford Weill; Morgan Stanley CEO Philip Purcell; Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. CEO Richard Fuld,; Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Henry Paulson Jr.; and former CEOs Allen Wheat and David Komansky of Credit Suisse Group’s Credit Suisse First Boston and of Merrill Lynch & Co., respectively, the people say. Regulators also have asked for information from heads of the research and investment-banking departments of nearly every major securities firm. In addition to e-mails, regulators are looking for performance reviews and correspondence, in an effort to determine if managers were properly supervising their employees. The CEOs either declined to comment through representatives or did not return calls for comment.”

“The action represents the second stage of an effort by regulators to root out conflicts on Wall Street. In late April, regulators announced a $1.4 billion settlement with securities firms that included new rules to address allegations that Wall Street firms misled investors by issuing overly optimistic stock research in a bid to win stock-underwriting assignments and other investment-banking business. The settlement focused on activities in the technology and telecommunications industries. The recent request is far broader, across all industry sectors, and has a deadline of June 20.”

“The executives and supervisors likely to get the most scrutiny are those at three firms that settled civil charges that their research was fraudulent: the former Salomon Smith Barney unit of Citigroup, which has since been restructured, as well as CSFB and Merrill. Among those firms, Citigroup paid the highest penalties at $400 million; the other two paid $200 million apiece as part of the global pact.”

“The request went out to all the firms involved in the global settlement, as well as the securities unit of Deutsche Bank and Thomas Weisel Partners. The firms in the settlement are: Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers, UBS Warburg LLC, Bear Stearns Cos. and US Bancorp Piper Jaffray.”