Robert M. Freeman (born ~1943)[citation needed] is an American stock broker and convicted felon who was a Goldman, Sachs & Co. partner. Freeman admitted to trading on inside information and pled guilty to mail fraud in 1989.[1]
The head of arbitrage at Goldman Sachs & Co., he was identified as a possible target in an insider trading scandal in November 1986,[2] and arrested on February 12, 1987.[3] The case was prosecuted by Rudolph Giuliani, then United States Attorney for the Southern District. According to the prosecutor, the case involved insider-trading information bought by Ivan Boesky from Martin A. Siegel, of Kidder, Peabody, who in turn got his information from Freeman.[4] Freeman eventually pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, served four months in Federal Prison Camp, Pensacola at Saufley Field, Florida.[5] On June 7, 1993, he agreed with the SEC to a three-year suspension from the securities industry and to surrender $1.1 million, in connection with the 1986 leveraged buyout of Beatrice Companies Inc. by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.[6]
In 2011, New York Times blogger William D. Cohan wrote that Freeman was an innocent victim of a prosecutorial "witch hunt," whose mail fraud conviction was unconnected to any insider trading.[5] In reply, Seeking Alpha author Jonathan Bernstein described Freeman as a "guilty bystander" in the search for evidence against Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken. According to Bernstein, Freeman's mail fraud conviction "was actually about insider trading".[7]
References
edit- ^ Stephen, Labaton (6 September 1989). "Ex-Goldman Trader Enters a Guilty Plea". The New York Times.
- ^ Stolley, Richard B. (May 25, 1987). "THE ORDEAL OF BOB FREEMAN". Fortune. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
- ^ COHAN, WILLIAM D. (March 4, 2010). "A Wall Street Witch Hunt". New York Times. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
- ^ Thomas Jr., Landon (February 18, 2002). "Cold Call". New York Magazine. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
- ^ a b COHAN, WILLIAM D. (April 27, 2011). "Why Is Enough Never Enough?". New York Times. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
- ^ Associated Press (June 8, 1993). "Freeman Agrees to $1.1-Million Fine, Suspension in Beatrice Deal". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 4, 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
- ^ Bernstein, Jonathan (7 March 2010). "NYT Blogger William Cohan Hearts Poor, Abused Goldman Sachs". March 7, 2010. Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
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