Antler-crashing over Bear Stearns has now moved into the past tense…as if the present-tense wrangling wasn’t all-consuming enough. That said, the scuffles aren’t among banks, bondholders and shareholders anymore. It’s between Congress and the Securities Exchange Commission. Over something that happened before the bank even imploded.

Securities regulators refused a congressional request to disclose why they dropped an investigation into whether Bear Stearns Cos. harmed investors by improperly valuing complex debt securities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission cited confidentiality in its decision involving the late-stage probe of the Wall Street firm.

At issue is a move by the SEC to abort an enforcement case into activities at Bear Stearns several months before the firm imploded in March. The firm has agreed to be acquired for a fire-sale price by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

The Wall Street Journal reported in December that investigators including the SEC had pulled back from bringing two cases begun in 2005 against Bear Stearns involving collateralized debt obligations, or thinly traded investments that package pools of loans. In an April 2 letter, Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, requested information from the SEC into the circumstances surrounding the dropped case.

"The Commission does not disclose the existence or nonexistence of an investigation or information generated in any investigation unless made a matter of public record in proceedings brought before the Commission or the courts," SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said in an April 16 letter to Sen. Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.

The move sets the stage for further wrangling. Legislators could argue that they previously have sought -- and received -- much more-sensitive-classified data, and that the SEC investigations wouldn't harm the parties involved because they had been dropped. Bear Stearns soon will lose its independence, becoming part of J.P. Morgan Chase.

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