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To: energyplay who wrote (53122)	9/8/2004 11:27:04 AM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

EP, I meant to ask you, what exactly do you see in Paramount? What say you about Viking, if anything? TIA, Jay

To: energyplay who wrote (53122)	9/8/2004 3:42:19 PM
From: Taikun	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Considering the size of the crime, don't you think the fine is a bit excessive? Quattrone Gets 18 Months for Obstruction of Justice (Update1) Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Frank Quattrone, who earned $120 million in 2000 as Credit Suisse First Boston's top technology banker, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $90,000 for urging employees to destroy documents during a probe of CSFB. Quattrone's lawyers had asked U.S. District Judge Richard Owen to sentence the former investment banker to 10 months in prison, the minimum under federal guidelines, with five months of home detention. Quattrone was convicted of impeding investigations into how his bank allocated shares of initial public offerings during the technology boom of the late 1990s. Under U.S. sentencing guidelines, Quattrone faced 10 to 16 months in prison. Prosecutors said the range should be increased by five months, and Quattrone should serve from 15 to 21 months, because he lied in his testimony at trial. Owen granted the government's request for a stiffer sentence saying it was ``crystal clear'' Quattrone had been ``untruthful.'' Quattrone, 48, is the highest-ranking securities executive to face prison since junk-bond pioneer Michael Milken was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 1990. He served two. ``I humbly ask that you show mercy and compassion for me and my family,'' Quattrone said before being sentenced in Manhattan federal court. Quattrone has said he'll challenge Owen's trial rulings on appeal. He claims the judge gave jurors misleading instructions about the government's burden of proof and denied him a fair trial by excluding evidence the defense wanted to offer. Wharton CSFB spokeswoman Victoria Harmon declined to comment on the sentence. Quattrone's mother and other family members were present in court today. Current and former CSFB bankers were also in attendance, including Elliott Rogers, who headed technology research, John Hodge and George Boutros. Hodge was a defense witness at Quattrone's trial. Quattrone, who grew up in South Philadelphia, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University. At CSFB, he oversaw a Palo Alto, California-based technology group that generated up to 15 percent of the bank's revenue during the Internet boom. He took dozens of companies public, including Amazon.com Inc. in 1997. Nine Handicap Since his conviction in May, Quattrone has passed the time golfing at courses near his home in Los Altos Hills, California, according to the Golf Handicap and Information Network. He belongs to four clubs, including Tehama, owned by actor Clint Eastwood, and has a 9 handicap. Quattrone has played at least 20 games since June. He shot an 80 on Thursday, according to the network's Web site. Quattrone may request assignment to a prison in California as Milken did after he pleaded guilty to securities fraud. Before his trial, Quattrone sought unsuccessfully to have the case transferred to his home state because his wife is ill. Quattrone was convicted of two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering. His first trial ended with a hung jury in October. `Clean Up' Files The case turned on a single, December 2000 e-mail written by a colleague who urged CSFB employees to ``clean up'' their files and discard documents. Quattrone forwarded the message after learning that a federal grand jury was investigating how CSFB doled out IPO shares. Before passing on the e-mail, Quattrone amended it. He noted his previous experience as a witness in a securities lawsuit and said that led him to ``strongly advise'' CSFB employees to follow the bank's document retention policy which called for routine purging of some records. Quattrone testified in his own defense at both trials. Prosecutors say he deceived jurors. At the first trial, he initially said he didn't decide who got IPO shares, then testified under cross-examination that he ``might have participated'' in discussions on allocations. At his retrial, Quattrone acknowledged on direct examination that he sometimes made allocation recommendations. Martha Stewart CSFB placed Quattrone on administrative leave on Feb. 3, 2003, soon after news of the e-mail became public. He resigned a month later. Before sentencing, Quattrone was interviewed by court probation officials who recommended that Owen give him 10 months, half in prison and half in home detention, the banker's spokesman, Robert Chlopak, said. For his appeal, Quattrone has hired Mark Pomerantz, a partner at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison in Manhattan. Pomerantz previously represented ImClone Systems Inc. founder Samuel Waksal, who pleaded guilty to insider trading and was sentenced to 87 months in prison last year. Earlier this year, another federal judge in Manhattan sentenced Martha Stewart to five months in prison and five months of home detention for obstructing justice. The case is U.S. v. Quattrone, 03-CR-582, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. To contact the reporter on this story: David Glovin in U.S. District Court in New York at dglovin@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick Oster at poster@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: September 8, 2004 15:12 EDT