A top UBS lawyer quits amid New York probe

David Aufhauser, general counsel for the bank's North America division, will remain as a consultant for the bank until September 30, according to an internal company memo, Reuters confirmed.

New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo has charged that the bank committed fraud when it told investors that its auction rate securities were cash equivalents. He says the bank's officials sold off their own securities as the bank continued to sell them to clients.

Aufhauser was not named publicly in Cuomo's civil complaint, but he was one of the main officials involved, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

The complaint states the seven UBS executives sold $21 billion of personal auction-rate securities in the months before their prices fell, according to the report, citing sources familiar with the situation.

Aufhauser will be replaced by Jim Odell and Mark Shelton as co-general counsels for the Americas, according to the memo. David Graham will become the bank's general counsel.