Two prospective jurors who wrote comments about “wrongdoing” and “bending the rules” by Wall Street were rejected by a US judge yesterday for the trial of two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers on fraud charges.
The jurors were opposed by lawyers for money managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin — the first Wall Streeters to be criminally charged from a listed company bailed out by the government in 2008. The bailout paved the way for JPMorgan Chase to take over Bear Stearns, a company once worth $45 billion.
Cioffi and Tannin are accused in Brooklyn federal court of promoting their hedge funds, crammed with risky subprime mortgage-backed securities, while privately expressing fears in e-mails of a market calamity.
The funds collapsed in June 2007, losing investors $1.4 billion at an early stage of the financial crisis.
Both men deny charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy.