Alan Brian Bond

Alan Bond, not to be confused with the Australian business magnate who shares the name, was a highly successful money manager, having started his own firm, Bond Procope Capital Management in 1991. Bond had a dual Ivy league pedigree, a 1983 graduate of Dartmouth College and a 1987 graduate of Harvard Business School. He began his financial career with Goldman Sachs and then became a portfolio manager for W. R. Lazard & Co. In 1998, Bond bought out his partners and renamed his firm Albriond Capital Management. Bond became a regular guest on the PBS television program, ''Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser.'' However, on December 16, 1999, Bond was indicted on fraud and kickback charges, alleging he received some $6.9 million in kickbacks from commissions paid to brokers to whom he steered business. Specifically, Bond was indicted on 11 felony counts, including conspiracy, investment advisory fraud, commercial bribery and making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The indictment stated that from 1993 until 1998, Bond received kickbacks ranging from 57 to 80 percent of the trade commissions from three brokerages firms, including Lintz, Glover, White & Company of Sherman Oaks, California, Brenner Securities Corp. of New York City and Value Investing Partners of Westport, Connecticut. Bond was also accused of taking kickbacks in the form of “soft dollar” credits. Authorities alleged that Bond used the misappropriated funds to finance an extremely lavish lifestyle that included a luxury home in Montclair, New Jersey, two vacation homes in Florida and 75 luxury and classic automobiles. Bond’s apparent principal co-conspirator, Robert I. Spruill, was also indicted on conspiracy and fraud charges. Spruill reportedly had worked at all three of the brokerage firms in question and had set up a dummy company, Satchmo Inc., in order to funnel the commission kickbacks to Bond. Spruill pleaded guilty in early June 2000 and agreed to cooperate with authorities in the case. In August 2001, Bond was arrested and charged with operating an illegal “cherry picking” scheme that directed virtually all of his profitable stock trades to his own accounts and most of his unprofitable ones to accounts he managed for three clients. The new indictment added nine felony counts charged against Bond, including six counts of securities fraud and three counts of investment advisory fraud. Bond was released from jail on a $1 million bond with an agreement that barred him from working as an investment advisor and forced him to close his business. In May 2002, Bond’s “cherry picking” fraud trial commenced wherein it was revealed in testimony that he was fired from Goldman Sachs for inflating his expense reports in 1989. After his three week trial, the jury found Bond was guilty on six felony fraud counts and he was remanded directly to jail since he was considered a substantial flight risk. Bond subsequently plead guilty in October 2002 to charges that he had accepted millions of dollars in kickbacks in his earlier fraud case. In February 2003, Bond was sentenced to 12 ½ years in prison in his kickback case and ordered to pay $6.6 million in restitution.