The suspected rogue trader who pushed a Stamford, Conn., brokerage to the brink of insolvency with an unauthorized $1 billion purchase of Apple stock has hired a high-priced lawyer, The Post has learned.
David Miller, whose Oct. 25 Apple buy is alleged to have been part of a stock- manipulation scam, hired a legal eagle from a Fifth Avenue firm with experience defending white-collar criminal cases.
The FBI and federal regulators are probing the matter.
Miller has not returned to work at the brokerage, Rochdale Securities, since making the massive stock buy.
The probe focuses on whether the 40-year-old Long Islander was part of a trading scheme to drive down the price of Apple stock; accomplices outside the firm would then place bearish bets on the shares and split the profits with Miller, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Miller, who is married with three children, has not been charged with any crime or securities violation. Oddly, he hasn’t been fired either.
After the trader left the office on Oct. 25, he had a dramatic phone conversation with Rochdale brass, who had just found out about the gargantuan, unauthorized trade.
“You better get back here!” a supervisor screamed into the telephone. “You really f—ed up a trade.”
Miller didn’t return to Rochdale and instead hired Kenneth “Casey” Murphy, a lawyer who counts former New York State Comptroller Alan “Pay for Play” Hevesi and Bayou hedge fund co-founder James Marquez as past clients.
Miller maintains the Apple trade was nothing more than a mistake but doesn’t think he still has a Wall Street future.
“He believes his career is over,” said a source familiar with his thinking.
Meanwhile, Rochdale CEO Dan Crowley continues to talk to possible white- knight investors about an investment in the firm, which likely cannot survive without added capital.
Rochdale execs informed regulators of a number of peculiar moves Miller made before leaving work Oct. 25, including disconnecting his work phone.
To associates, the suspect rogue trader hardly looks the part. He is described as a family man who likes to take his daughter to Mets baseball games.