A few weeks ago, the US government issued a statement about a group of hedge funds that it said were profiting from the sale of billions of dollars of US government bonds.

The statements came as the government attempted to prevent a second wave of bond-buying by big banks, which have been hit hard by the Great Recession.

But some of the funds in question, including BlackRock, have long been accused of misleading investors about the state of their investments.

The funds were originally formed in 2006 and are managed by BlackRock.

They have been criticised for selling large chunks of bonds, in some cases to private investors, and for being too big to fail, although they are still listed on the US stock market.

BlackRock has been criticised on numerous occasions for not providing adequate oversight of its investments, including by its board.

On Thursday, a New York court ordered BlackRock to pay $9m (£7.3m) in fines to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission for misleading investors and failing to protect its investors from losses.

The case came amid a continuing scandal involving the fund, which has been under investigation by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency since last year.

The SEC investigation is the result of a complaint filed by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), which is investigating the firm’s activities during the financial crisis.

In its ruling, the court said BlackRock was not properly complying with rules and regulations to prevent its investment managers from selling and buying securities at artificially low prices.

The court said that the funds’ managers had not disclosed the amount of assets they held, the type of bonds they held or the type they were buying.

The commission had been investigating whether the funds were making money by selling low-quality securities, for example to a foreign investor or a person who is not authorised to invest in US securities.

Blackrock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Federal Reserve said in a statement that the SEC “took a thorough and aggressive investigation of the conduct of BlackRock and determined that the company’s misrepresentations were not the result solely of ignorance but that BlackRock’s management was aware of its potential conflicts of interest”.

It said the Federal Government “has a role to play in ensuring that the investments made by these large hedge funds are managed in a manner that ensures the investment performance of these funds.”