Frank Quattrone

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Frank Quattrone (born 1956) is a former investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston who helped bring dozens of companies public during the 1990s tech boom, including Netscape, Cisco, and Amazon.com. Later he who was prosecuted for interfering with a government probe into Credit Suisse First Boston's behavior in allocating "hot" IPOs. The case was eventually dropped. He was earning roughly $160 million a year during his peak at the firm.[1]

Quattrone grew up in Philadelphia and attended St. Joe's Preparatory school on an academic scholarship. He was admitted to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with honors. Following business school at Stanford University, he began work at Morgan Stanley's technology investment banking group.

In 2003, Quattrone was confronted with evidence of allegedly-incriminating emails in a widely publicized series of trials. The first trial resulted in a hung jury. The second trial resulted in a conviction. Partially based upon the Supreme Court case Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States [2], on March 20, 2006, Quattrone's appeal was successful when the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Quattrone's conviction based on erroneous jury instructions. WSJ.com (sub. req'd) Bloomberg.com (no sub. req'd) The appeals court also agreed with the defense that in the interest of justice, subsequent proceedings should take place in front of a different judge.

On August 22, 2006, Quattrone reached a deferred prosecution deal and will not face prison time, "leading legal observers to label the agreement an exoneration."[3] The National Association of Securities Dealers also dropped their charges. He now "plan[s] to resume [his] business career."[4] According to reports, Mr. Quattrone will receive $100 million to $550 million in overdue compensation, so long as he abides by an agreement and does not break the law for a year. Credit Suisse already paid for Quattrone’s legal costs.

Quattrone was one of the highest profile Wall Street bankers to face prison since Michael Milken, the Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond king of the 1980s.