Through the early 1990s, Citron enjoyed his growing importance as someone who conjured up
extra money for public services. The amount of public money in the pool grew quickly until in
1994, Citron was investing $7.5 billion in US agency notes of various kinds. He was a popular
port of call for salesmen from Wall Streets big brokerage firms, particularly those from securities
giant Merrill Lynch. Later, these salesmen would say they were merely servicing an experienced
and savvy investor, while Citron would claim he had been misled about the riskiness of the
instruments.