New Judge Assigned In Quattrone Case

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

28 April 2006

It emerged this week that US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has been appointed to replace Judge Richard Owen in the obstruction and witness tampering case against former CSFB star broker, Frank Quattrone.

Mr Quattrone had his conviction overturned by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in March, after the panel ruled that Judge Owen had wrongly instructed the jury.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also last month overturned a lifetime ban on working in the securities industry that had been imposed on Mr Quattrone.

The dispute stemmed from the former investment banker's forwarding of an e-mail urging CSFB employees to 'clean up' their files pending a federal investigation of the allocation of shares in popular initial public offerings.

Mr Quattrone refused to cooperate with an NASD inquiry into the matter, invoking his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, on the grounds that he was also facing criminal charges over his alleged actions.

The securities association responded by imposing the lifetime ban on the broker, arguing that by refusing to respond, Quattrone had "violated the cornerstone principle of securities industry self-regulation that associated persons must cooperate with investigations".

However, the SEC last month argued that the NASD had violated its own rules by imposing the lifetime ban, arguing that it had acted prematurely in the matter.

Despite the appointment of Judge Kaplan this week, it is not yet known whether the government plans to put the former broker on trial for a third time.

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