SEC charges 8 ex-mutual fund directors

(AP) Eight former mutual fund directors are facing civil charges after they allowed others at the firm to set values for mortgage securities and investors lost roughly $1.5 billion on five funds.

The Securities and Exchange Commission says the directors at Morgan Keegan & Co. delegated the duty to fund managers, even though directors are required by law to set values when market prices are not available.

Last year Morgan Keegan agreed to pay $200 million to settle the SEC's fraud charges that it inflated the investments' value as the housing market was collapsing in 2007.