Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
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January 13, 2000, Thursday, Late Edition – Final
SECTION: Section C; Page 12; Column 2; Business/Financial Desk
LENGTH: 221 words
HEADLINE: Four Are Acquitted In Stock-Fraud Case
BYLINE: Bloomberg News
DATELINE: WHITE PLAINS, Jan. 12
BODY:
Four former executives with the defunct brokerage firm of Monroe
Parker Securities Inc. were acquitted today of charges that they
cheated investors of $74 million, after a trial in which the firm’s owner
testified against them.
Jurors sitting in Westchester County Court deliberated for less than a
day before rejecting state charges that the firm’s four junior partners
had misled customers with false inside information and withheld
important information about stocks they were promoting.
The four — Stephen Kiront, Barry Kiront, John Patrick Clancy and
Steven A. — had argued that they were unaware of the fraud
conducted by Monroe Parker’s owners, Alan Scott Lipsky and Bryan
Herman.
“They had no knowledge of the scheme and were themselves victims;
their clients lost money,” said Stephen Scaring, the lawyer for Stephen
Kiront.
A spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of New York, who
prosecuted the case, confirmed the acquittals but declined to comment.
The four executives acquitted today were charged in 1998, along with
Mr. Lipsky, Mr. Herman, and six others, with defrauding investors of
$74 million, Mr. Scaring said.
According to prosecutors, brokerage firm executives gained control of
trading in securities before artificially increasing the bid price and
selling them to investors.