Legal News

Jury Convicts Credit Suisse Banker of Insider Trading

By Peter Lattman

How about a little insider-trading news with your Tuesday morning muffin? Former Credit Suisse banker Hafiz Muhammad Zubair Naseem was convicted of criminal charges yesterday alleging that he improperly tipped off a prominent investment Pakistani banker about pending mergers. Here’s the DJ Newswires story, and prior Law Blog posts — here and here — on the prosecution.

The feds had alleged that Ajaz Rahim, a prominent investment banker in Pakistan, was tipped off by Naseem about proposed acquisitions in which Credit Suisse was acting as an advisor, including M&A deals involving the TXU buyout and Express Scripts’ failed bid for Caremark. “It was perfect timing nearly all the time,” said AUSA Reed Brodsky last week during closing arguments. “Nine out of nine times Rahim hit the lottery with the defendant’s help.” Rahim, who also has been charged in the matter, remains in Pakistan.

They alleged that Naseem accessed internal computer files at Credit Suisse about pending mergers on which he wasn’t working and rifled through the papers on colleagues’ desks in search of information. “The defendant wasn’t just a curious young investment banker,” said Brodsky. “He was searching for inside information to tip Rahim.”

He’ll be sentenced in April. “We respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict,” said Michael Bachner, Naseem’s lawyer. Naseem was previously represented by Marc Mukasey of Bracewell & Giuliani in New York and the son of AG Michael Mukasey.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 05, 2008 (boomark / email).