Ex-Nomura Trader Must Defend Bond-Case Dismissal in Higher Court

(Bloomberg) -- Prosecutors are pressing their attack on questionable practices used by bond traders, appealing a judge’s decision to toss out the conviction of a former Nomura Holdings Inc. managing director caught up in the sputtering U.S. crackdown.

Michael Gramins was found guilty last year of one conspiracy count after a trial in Hartford, Connecticut, and cleared of six fraud counts; jurors deadlocked on two other charges. Shortly before his retrial was to start, a federal appeals court in another case tossed out the conviction of another trader, Jesse Litvak -- and that prompted Gramins’s judge to follow suit.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday appealed the ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny, who said testimony by a representative of one of Gramins’s customers may have led jurors to mistakenly conclude that Gramins had a duty to tell the truth in negotiations.

Gramins’s lawyer, Marc Mukasey, said Thursday that the “cases have proven to be a colossal failure for the government.”

Ex-Nomura Bond Trader Wins Retrial in Latest Crackdown Blow
Litvak Case Returns Again to Appeals Court in Long-Shot U.S. Bid

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider

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