Ex-Bear Stearns fund managers seen charged: source

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two former hedge fund managers at investment bank Bear Stearns are expected to be indicted following a federal criminal probe into the funds' collapse, a person with knowledge of the situation said on Wednesday.

Charges against former managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin could be announced by authorities as early as Thursday, this person said.

Cioffi and Tannin oversaw two funds whose collapse last year helped kick off the credit crisis.

The meltdown of the two funds stoked widespread fears about investments linked to risky subprime mortgage loans, and spurred questions about the oversight and risk management operations at Bear Stearns, which was sold in March to JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) in an emergency takeover deal brokered by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, New York, has been investigating the funds' collapse, sources have previously told Reuters.

NPR said in a report on its Web site on Wednesday that a grand jury was expected to sign indictments for the two men as early as Wednesday and that the indictment would be unsealed on Thursday, when Cioffi and Tannin could be arrested or opt to turn themselves in.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment. A lawyer for Tannin also declined to comment, while Cioffi's lawyer did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

(Reporting by Martha Graybow and Emily Chasan, editing by Mark Porter)