Collateral damage on and off Wall Street

Floridian Jeffrey Spanier was today (June 23) sentenced to serve ten years in custody for his role in a $100 million stock loan fraud. The case was handled by San Diego's U.S. Attorney's office. Spanier was ordered to forfeit $10.7 million to victims.

In April of 2012, Spanier and two associates, Douglas McClain Jr. and James Miceli, were charged with multiple counts of conspiracy; mail, wire, and securities fraud; and money-laundering. Miceli committed suicide.

In May of 2013, a grand jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts against Spanier and McClain. According to trial testimony, Spanier, through Amerifund Capital Finance, working with McClain and Miceli, fraudulently induced corporate executives to pledge stock in publicly held companies as collateral on loans. The conspirators promised the stock would not be sold unless there was a default. But the stock was dumped the day after it was pledged. When loans were paid off, borrowers could not get their stock back.