A Pennsylvania court handed has sentenced Thomas J. Gerbasio, a broker with a division of hedge fund Beacon Rock Capital of Portland, Ore., to serve one year and a day in jail.
It is one of only a handful of prison sentences that, to date, have been imposed on an asset management executive for their direct involvement in the market-timing scandal, the most high profile case being Bank of America broker Theodore Sihpol III, who then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer scapegoated early on for processing trades for hedge fund Canary Capital. Canary and its founding principal Edward Stern.
Last week's case, handed down on May 12, was based on a criminal investigation that initiated March 20, 2007, when the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania charged Beacon Rock and Gerbasio with securities fraud totaling $2.4 million, through 2,600 trades in hundreds of unsuspecting mutual funds from 1999 through 2003.
Meanwhile, one of Beacon Rock's hedge fund clients has been given three years' probation and handed a $1 million fine for their involvement.
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