If you’re a finance executive working for a tech company, Frank Quattrone just might be knocking on your door again.
That’s because the one-time investment banking kingpin worked out a long-rumored deal in which his criminal case was dismissed without a third trial, according to the Associated Press. The former Credit Suisse Group Inc. banker agreed to a deferred-prosecution deal, which means he will not face penalties if he doesn’t violate any laws in the next 12 months.
Quattrone told reporters he plans to resume “my business career,” according to Reuters. During the height of the late-1990s boom, Quattrone was one of the most influential deal-makers on Wall Street, specializing in the tech sector.
Credited with taking dozens of companies public, including Amazon.com, Cisco Systems, and Adobe Systems, Quattrone earned $120 million in 2000 alone, according to Bloomberg.
Under the settlement, Quattrone did not admit any wrongdoing. “I’m very pleased this case will be concluded and I look forward to the formal dismissal of all charges,” he told the reporters outside the courthouse following the hearing, according to Reuters.
Quattrone was accused of obstruction of justice during a government investigation when he sent an E-mail to colleagues in December 2000 suggesting it was “time to clean up those files,” Reuters recalled.
In 2004, prosecutors won a 2004 conviction against him for obstructing justice and witness tampering, Bloomberg noted. But in March the verdict was thrown out by an appeals court, which cited flawed jury instructions, according to the wire service. The court said, however, that there was sufficient evidence to convict him.
His first trial ended in a mistrial, with the jury split 8-3 in favor of conviction, according to Bloomberg.