UPDATE 1-NY's Cuomo: Specific complaints in short-sale probe

(Recasts, adds details)

ALBANY, Sept 19 (Reuters) - New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Friday said he expects to have some results from a probe into the possible illegal short-selling of financial stocks in "a matter of weeks," and said he is investigating specific allegations.

Cuomo, who on Thursday announced a probe into short-selling in the stocks of Wall Street companies, told an Albany radio show: "Hard evidence, we have complaints."

Asked if he had specific allegations, Cuomo said, "Oh yes," though he said at this point they are just complaints.

Short-selling in financial shares has become a focus of the credit crisis that has gripped global markets, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday issuing an emergency ban on short-selling of 799 financial stocks. The move came a day after UK regulators imposed their own four-month ban on short-selling of financial shares.

Short selling is used by investors who sell borrowed shares on bets that the price of a stock will fall. The short seller hopes to buy back the shares at a lower price to repay the loan and profit from the difference.

It is a legitimate form of trading, but is often blamed when a company's stock falls. Moves to intentionally try and drive down the price of a stock is illegal.

A "naked" short sale occurs when the seller does not borrow or arrange to borrow the stock in time to make delivery to the buyer within the proscribed settlement period. It is illegal for a broker-dealer to intentionally fail to deliver stock to investors who have arranged to borrow it.

Cuomo on Thursday had said his probe would look at possible illegal short selling in the stocks of Lehman Brothers' Holdings Inc LEH.N (LEHMQ.PK) , which filed for bankruptcy on Monday, and insurer American International Group Inc (AIG.N) , which the government rescued on Tuesday with an $85 billion bailout, and investment banks including Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N).

Asked how long it would take to determine if there was evidence of possible wrong-doing in the short- selling probe, Cuomo said: "We are doing this relatively quickly so we will know in a matter of weeks."

Cuomo, who said Thursday and Wednesday were "frightening days," said he wants his investigation to deter wrong-doers who tried to "capitalize on the crisis."

"So before you pick up that telephone or before you send an e-mail, beware, make sure you are on the right side of the law because we are going to watching," he said.

"When you get into a panic situation, short-selling can move like fire through dry grass and it is even irrational," Cuomo said. "You can drop an institution's stock price and you can make them go out of business or make them merge or make them sell assets that are actually not intelligent for anyone." (Reporting by Elizabeth Flood Morrow in Albany; Writing by Joan Gralla; Editing by Leslie Adler)