Source:
BloombergJan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph Collins, Refco Inc.’s former outside lawyer, was sentenced to seven years in prison for helping Chief Executive Officer Phillip Bennett and other executives defraud investors of $2.4 billion.
Collins was convicted in July of charges that he helped Refco’s management conceal transactions from lenders and investors that hid losses incurred by the New York-based firm. Collins had been employed at the time as a corporate lawyer at Chicago’s Mayer Brown LLP.
U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson in New York handed down the sentence after lawyers for Collins asked him to vacate the conviction because they discovered new evidence. At the two- month trial, jurors were unable to reach a verdict on nine counts.
“I think this is a case of excessive loyalty to his client,” Patterson said at today’s sentencing. He said Collins, whom the judge called an “extraordinary man,” abused the trust placed in him as an attorney. “That requires deterrence,” Patterson said.
Once the biggest independent U.S. futures trader, Refco collapsed in 2005, two months after raising $670 million in an initial public offering. Refco filed for bankruptcy after disclosing that it had transferred more than $1 billion in losses to a firm owned by former Chief Executive Officer Phillip Bennett.
<snip>
For almost a decade, Refco concealed trading losses by secretly transferring them to the Bennett-owned holding company. Prosecutors said Collins knew of the scheme and still drafted legal documents that allowed Bennett to deceive investors, including Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Partners, which paid $507 million for a 57 percent stake in Refco in 2004.
Read more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a3gTuiHWluwc
this one's for Ozy :toast:
if we had a smilie for the fire's of hell, I'd post it here
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
