Former Credit Suisse First Boston investment banker Frank Quattrone was found guilty late yesterday afternoon of all charges in his retrial, according to published reports. Quattrone had been accused of interfering with federal investigations into hot initial public offerings of stock during the late 1990s market bubble.
Like Martha Stewart and former New Jersey Nets basketball player Jayson Williams, Quattrone is likely going to jail for covering up his actions.
Quattrone was found guilty of two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering in a trial that lasted just two weeks, according to Reuters. The jury of six men and six women arrived at their verdict after deliberating for less than nine hours. Quattrone showed no emotion as the verdict was read, added the wire service.
He faces one to two years in prison when he is sentenced September 8, according to reports.
Quattrone once ran Credit Suisse First Boston’s California-based global technology group, in which he secured high-flying tech IPOs like those of Amazon.com and Netscape Communications Corp. for his employer. Federal prosecutors arrested the former investment banker in April 2003.
At the heart of the obstruction-of-justice charge was an e-mail Quattrone sent during a December 2000 investigation that reportedly encouraged his subordinates to “clean up” their files. Prosecutors claim that he learned two days before the December 5 message that a federal grand jury and the Securities and Exchange Commission had asked for documents in those files.
Hundreds of computer files stored in directories related to IPOs underwritten by CSFB were deleted during the period in question, according to a Reuters account of the complaint.
Quattrone’s first go-round in court ended in a mistrial last October when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
