Ex-LinkBrokers Employees Charged With Conspiracy, Fraud

U.S. prosecutors charged three brokers with making millions of dollars by lying about the prices of securities they bought and sold for clients.

Marek Leszczynski and Benjamin Chouchane were arrested and appeared in federal court today, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan. A third man, Henry Condron, pleaded guilty in the scheme earlier this week, the government said.

All three men are former employees of the same brokerage firm, which prosecutors didn’t identify. Finra records show the men all worked for LinkBrokers Derivatives Corp., a unit of London-based ICAP Plc. (IAP)

Separately, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today filed a suit and claimed the three men and a fourth former LinkBrokers employee, Gregory Reyftmann, illegally took $18.7 million from customers by reporting fake execution prices on more than 36,000 transactions over four years.

Guy Taylor, an ICAP spokesman, had no immediate comment on the cases.

The criminal cases are U.S. v. Chouchane, 12-mj-2615; U.S. v. Leszczynski, 12-mj-2614; and U.S. v. Condron; and the SEC case is SEC v. Leszczynski, 12-cv-7488, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in Manhattan federal court at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.