The SEC accused Harding and its owner Wing F. Chau in October of having accommodated Magnetar's requests to include certain assets. Merrill Lynch engaged in the misconduct in 2006 and 2007, when its CDO group was a leading arranger of structured-product CDOs, the SEC said. After four Merrill Lynch representatives met with a Magnetar employee in May 2006, an internal e-mail described the arrangement, according to the SEC's statement. 'MUTUALLY AGREEABLE' "We pick up mutually agreeable [collateral] managers to work with, Magnetar plays a significant role in the structure and composition of the portfolio," and in return Magnetar "retain[s] the equity class and we distribute the debt," the SEC quoted the message as saying. About one third of the assets for the portfolio underlying the Norma CDO were amassed by Magnetar rather than by NIR, the designated collateral manager, according to the SEC.