[IP] Where are all your 'friends' now, Frank

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Where are all your 'friends' now, Frank? The National Association of
Securities Dealers (NASD) finally dropped the hammer on Credit Suisse First
Boston banker Frank Quattrone Thursday, charging him with violating a host
of industry regulations. The NASD alleges Quattrone, who took ventures like
Cisco Systems, Netscape Communications and Amazon.com public, undermined the
independence of Credit Suisse First Boston's research analysts and ran afoul
of securities industry rules against "spinning" -- allocating shares of plum
IPOs to key executives in the hopes of securing their company's investment
banking business. According to the NASD, some 300 executives, known as
"Friends of Frank" from the valley and elsewhere, availed themselves of
Quattrone's beneficence, among them VeriSign Chairman and Chief Executive
Stratton Sclavos ,who received between 350 and 10,000 shares in each of 37
IPOs handled by Credit Suisse between February 2000 and May 2001. Quattrone,
for his part, disputes the charges and contends regulators are trying to
make him the fall guy for Wall Street's excesses during the '90s. In a
statement issued late Thursday, Howard Heiss, a lawyer for Quattrone, called
the allegations unfair and unfounded. "The NASD charges are completely
without merit and represent an unprecedented attempt to take punitive action
against an individual for conduct that was legal at the time and widespread
throughout the industry," Heiss said.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5335424.htm

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