Last week, Greenberg Traurig, LLP’s white collar defense and special investigations team secured a significant victory for a client when they succeeded in getting a bond trader’s conspiracy conviction thrown out and a new trial on the count granted.
Led by the practice co-chair Marc Mukasey, a firm shareholder who is based in New York, the team represented Michael Gramins, a former bond trader at Nomura Securities International Inc., in a high-profile residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) matter that alleged Gramins lied to customers about mortgage bond prices. In last year’s trial before Judge Robert Chatigny in Connecticut, the government failed to convict Gramins on eight of nine counts, including six counts on which he was outright acquitted. (U.S. v. Shapiro et al., 3:15-cr-00155.)
With the one conspiracy conviction count under review by the court, Judge Chatigny tossed it on June 5 and granted a new trial, citing the recent Second Circuit reversal of conviction of Jesse Litvak. Gramins’ new trial on the unresolved counts from the first trial, as well as on this conspiracy count, is scheduled for July 2018.
“How many times is the government going to get beaten back by courts and juries before they drop these woefully misguided RMBS cases?” Mukasey said.
This is the second major recent win for Greenberg Traurig’s White Collar Defense and Special Investigations practice. Leaders In The Law reported on the firm’s acquittal in a criminal conspiracy trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut alleging manipulation of commodity prices through spoofing. That case was U.S. v. Flotron, 3:17-cr-00220; Mukasey and shareholder Nathan J. Muyskens led the trial team.