There are conflicts of interest between investment banks sell-side analysts during the dot-com era (around 1999). Some analysts would promise to give "buy" ratings to IPO stock issues of certain corporations, in order to entice those corporations to allow the I-bank to act as underwriter for the IPO itself. This would potentially generate lots of fees for the I-bank. Though everyone would agree this does not sound "right," , the real question is : exactly what US law or regulation did these analysts break ? Was there even a law or regulation governing this ?