Ex-BofA Broker to Be Tried in Fund Case
A New York judge Monday refused to dismiss charges against a former Bank of America Corp. broker accused of helping to arrange millions of dollars of illegal mutual fund trades.
The decision means that Theodore Sihpol, the first person arrested by New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer in his 18-month probe of the $8-trillion mutual fund industry, will stand trial beginning April 26.
Sihpol, 37, was accused of helping Canary Capital Partners, a New Jersey-based hedge fund, trade illegally in Bank of America’s Nations Funds mutual funds. He pleaded not guilty last April to 40 counts of fraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records, and remains free on $750,000 bail.
C. Evan Stewart, the lead lawyer for Sihpol, said the decision by New York Supreme Court Justice James Yates was not a surprise. Yates declined to reduce or dismiss any charges.
“The judge had signaled this was where he was going to come out” at a Feb. 22 hearing on the matter, said Stewart, a partner at Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner.
Bank of America shares rose 3 cents to $45.80 on the New York Stock Exchange.
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