The tale of the government’s pursuit of former Jefferies managing director and mortgage-backed securities trader Jesse Litvak may finally be coming to a close.
Way back in March 2014, Litvak was found guilty of lying to clients about mortgage-backed securities.
All in all, Litvak received a two-year prison sentence for 10 counts of securities fraud, one count of defrauding TARP, and four counts of making false statements within the jurisdiction of the United States government.
Litvak successfully fought that sentence, getting it thrown out because he wasn’t allowed to bring expert witnesses to testify on his behalf.
But the government didn’t give up in its pursuit of Litvak, eventually securing a guilty verdict on one count of fraud.
And now, more than three years after first being convicted, Litvak has been sentenced to a two-year prison term, again.
Bloomberg has the details:
The former Jefferies LLC managing director was an aggressive negotiator when trading mortgage-backed bonds, bending the truth or even falsifying chat transcripts in order to maximize his earnings.
On Wednesday Litvak learned his punishment: two years behind bars and a $2 million fine for lying to a customer about bond prices. Litvak was found guilty at a trial in January — although on just one of 10 counts — after his first conviction was reversed on appeal.
"Your victims were harmed by your lies," said U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall. "They would not have paid you what they paid if you told the truth. You did what you did to make more money for yourself. Being pressed for money or wanting more money is never an excuse or even an explanation for a crime."
Click here or below for much more on Litvak’s trial, from Bloomberg.
