Jury finds banker guilty

The millionaire banker likely will be sent to prison.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Former investment banker Frank Quattrone was depicted at his retrial as a skilled multitasker, juggling several major deals at a time and firing off e-mails by the dozen.
In the end, jurors said they decided he was too sharp not to have been keenly aware of federal investigations into his bank when he sent an e-mail encouraging his subordinates to destroy files.
Quattrone, 48, who shepherded some of the most important companies of the dot-com stock boom to the public market, was convicted Monday of obstructing justice and witness tampering. The verdict means the former banker, who made $120 million in 2000 at Credit Suisse First Boston, will likely go to prison -- possibly for more than a year. Sentencing was set for Sept. 8.
"Frank Quattrone was at the top," said juror Sheldon Silver, 58, a public-relations firm receptionist. "You don't get to the top without being aware of a lot of different things."
The case was the second consecutive big win for Manhattan federal prosecutors in their pursuit of white-collar crime, coming just two months after Martha Stewart was found guilty of lying about a stock sale.
Both Stewart and Quattrone were charged with obstructing investigations in which they were not charged with the underlying crime.
In addition, prosecutors have wrung guilty pleas from an array of other corporate stars, including high-ranking former executives of WorldCom Inc., Enron Corp. and ImClone Systems.
The Quattrone case turned on his response to a Dec. 4, 2000, e-mail from Credit Suisse First Boston banker Richard Char that encouraged investment bankers to "clean up" their files before the holidays.
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