The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan issued a release today that former attorney in the SEC enforcement division, Robert Miller, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of securities fraud stemming from his participation with Marc Dreier in the attempted sale of a $44.7 million fictitious promissory note to two hedge funds.
In November 2008, Dreier offered to sell a New York-based hedge fund a promissory note with a face value of $44.7 million which, he claimed falsely, was held by a hedge fund located in Iceland, was guaranteed by a pension plan in Canada and was issued by a Canadian company, reads the government’s release.
Dreier paid Miller $100,000 to impersonate a representative of the Canadian pension plan in a phone call and discuss the guarantee that the pension plan had supposedly issue for the $44.7 million note.
Miller served as an SEC staff attorney for several years in the 1980s, afterwards working as an analyst and money manager at several securities firms. He faces as much as 20 years in prison on the fraud.
In December 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged New York lawyer Marc Dreier with fraud in connection with an elaborate scheme that raised at least $113 million from the sale of bogus promissory notes. He was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in July 2009.
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