Frank Quattrone, one of Silicon Valley's most influential
investment bankers in the dot.com boom, was arrested on Wednesday
and charged with obstruction of justice. The charges hang on an
e-mail that allegedly urged colleagues to "clean up" their files,
sent after learning that the files were to be investigated by
regulators.
Quattrone and his former firm Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB)
promoted and arranged Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) for many
technology companies in the late 1990s, earning huge amounts of
money in the process.
According to regulators, Quattrone personally earned $200
million from mid-1998 to late-2001. In mid-2000, investigations
began on allegations that CSFB had improperly shared IPO profits
with clients.
CSFB is not the only Wall Street firm to face such
investigations, but no firm has actually been charged with a crime.
CSFB reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange
Commission in early-2002 over the allocations, without admitting
any wrong-doing, and agreed to pay the sum of $100 million.
The only criminal charges to come out of the investigations are
those imposed on Quattrone. He is accused of sending an e-mail on
5th December 2000 urging colleagues to "clean up those files."
