Ex-SEC Lawyer Avoids Prison for Role in Marc Dreier Fraud Scheme
A former lawyer in the enforcement division of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission won’t be going to prison for his role in lawyer Marc Dreier’s fraud scheme.
Robert Miller was sentenced on Wednesday to two years of supervised release for helping Dreier sell more than $44 million in fake promissory notes to sophisticated investors, according to Dow Jones Newswires (sub. req.) and Bloomberg. He could have gone to prison for 20 years.
Miller said he had been a “self-loathing suicidal alcoholic” when he was committing the crimes, but he has stopped drinking and works as a counselor at a rehab facility, the Dow Jones story says.
Miller had pleaded guilty in November and admitted that Dreier paid him $100,000 to impersonate individuals at a Canadian pension plan and an Icelandic hedge fund in the scheme to sell the fake notes to sophisticated investors. Dreier was sentenced last July to 20 years in prison.
When sentencing Miller, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood of New York noted that the defendant had assisted the government and admitted his responsibility, the Dow Jones story says. Wood said the crime was an “act born of desperation.”
Hat tip to the Business Insider.
