Star banker faces jail

Frank Quattrone, a star investment banker during the Internet stock bubble, has been convicted of obstructing justice by sending a 22-word email encouraging colleagues to destroy files.

A federal jury in Manhattan, deliberating on its second day, returned guilty verdicts yesterday on all three counts against Quattrone – obstructing a grand jury, obstructing federal regulators and witness tampering.

Quattrone showed no reaction when the verdict was read but afterwards hugged and kissed his weeping mother and sister. He will be sentenced on September 8.

“I feel like we failed Frank. He’s innocent,” said his lawyer John Keker, adding that an appeal was planned. ”There’s an awful lot of evidence that the jury didn’t hear.”

The prosecution made no immediate comment.

Quattrone was tried last autumn on the same charges, but the judge declared a mistrial after jurors repeatedly said they were deadlocked.

The verdict today is likely to mean the 48-year-old former banker will go to prison, perhaps for more than a year.

“We wanted to do what we felt was the right thing. It wasn’t easy at all,” said juror Sheldon Silver, 58, a receptionist for a public relations firm. He said jurors found it difficult to gauge Quattrone’s state of mind when he sent the e-mail.

Quattrone’s email on December 5, 2000, urged colleagues at Credit Suisse First Boston to destroy documents.

At the time, a grand jury and federal regulators were investigating the bank’s stock allocation practices. The probe never resulted in criminal charges, and the bank later paid a $100m (€83.7m) civil settlement.

Quattrone was told two days before he sent the email that a grand jury was investigating the bank.

But he claims the note was a simple endorsement of company policy, which required regular document destruction.