Monday, November 23, 2009

Free the Bear Stearns Two

"Two weeks into the first major Wall Street prosecution after the financial crisis, the government's case appears headed for an anticlimax. ... Even the judge, Frederic Block, of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, has indicated he is fed up. On at least two occasions during the second week of trial, Judge Block admonished Ms. [Ilene] Jaroslaw to settle down. Regarding the ever-growing mountain of evidence, he commented: 'We have a lot of papers here. ... I doubt jurors are going to read all 530 of these documents. But this is how the government chooses to present its case. Continue.' ... For instance, when the prosecution tried to exclude from evidence an e-mail message from [Ralph] Cioffi that spoke of having a plan 'to save' his limited partners in the fund, Judge Block said: 'What's wrong with having a plan that saves his LPs? It shows his state of mind, that he is still trying to actively salvage the day'," Dan Slater at the NYT, 23 October 2009, link: http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/in-bear-trial-prosecution-seems-to-falter/?ref=business.

This case stinks. It's good to see the jury was not fooled by the DOJ's nonsense and acquitted Cioffi and Tanen.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lalala...

Global imbalances caused it all.

The poor Wall Streeters were caught in the terrible tsunami of collapsing leverage.

All of them just need to go back to making money. Gobs of money. Carry trade me. Endless liquidity.