| Frank Quattrone  AKA Frank P Quattrone
Born: 1955
Birthplace: Philadelphia, PA
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Business Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Troubled securities banker Frank Quattrone earned in excess of $200 million working for Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), running their Tech Group. Now he is the most powerful securities executive to face hard time in prison since junk-bond fraudster Michael Milken in 1991.
The charges are related to the ways by which CSFB allocated IPO shares to its customers. In boom times being able to buy at the IPO price often gave a chance to flip the stock immediately with incredible profits, particularly if the underwriters were gaming the initial offering price. Offering these shares to preferred customers is known as "spinning", and is a violation of NASD rules. It became apparent that authorities were investigating CSFB for their IPO practices, and also that private lawsuits might be brought. At this time, Quattrone sent a 22-word email (5th December 2000), in response to an email that suggested employees of CSFB should delete relevant emails. Quattrone's response: "having been a key witness in a securities litigation case in south texas (miniscribe) I strongly advise you to follow these procedures."
The "procedures" here were the company email retention policies. Sending an email of this nature in this context can be seen as tantamount to ordering destruction of evidence. Quattrone was convicted of two counts of obstruction of justice, and one count of witness tampering, later overturned. The reference to MiniScribe refers to a Colorado disk drive maker, bought in the mid-1980s by Q. T. Wiles, who famously filled boxes with bricks to fake an impressive "inventory" of MiniScribe's products. Quattrone testified as a witness (not a target) in this case, being employed by Morgan Stanley, one of the company's underwriters. Morgan Stanley was found to have no liability.
CSFB agreed to pay $100 million in January 2002 to settle regulatory probes. As usually happens when giant corporations settle with regulators, CSFB admitted no wrongdoing. Quattrone, meanwhile, was sentenced to 18 months prison, fined $90,000, and granted bail pending appeal. Conviction on all three counts was overturned on technical grounds (incorrect instructions to the jury, and permitting some lines of questioning to go too far). The appellate judge ordered that if a new trial were to occur, a different judge be used. The government is expected to retry the case.
Mother: Rosa
Wife: Denise Quattrone
High School: St. Joseph's Preparatory School, Philadelphia, PA
University: BA Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business (1977)
University: MBA, Stanford University (1981)
Romney for President
Took the Fifth
Obstruction of Justice Convicted on two counts, 3-May-2004 (overturned 2006)
Witness Tampering Convicted 3-May-2004 (overturned 2006)
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