Frank Quattrone

Frank Quattrone (born 1955) 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 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. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114288329963803188.html?mod=home_whats_news_us] Quattrone is now head of merchant banking firm Qatalyst Group, which he founded in March of 2008. [cite news
title=Frank Quattrone Launches Technology Banking Firm
url=http://www.silicontap.com/frank_quattrone_launches_technology_banking_firm/s-0014331.html
publisher="silicontap.com"
date=March 18, 2008
accessdate=2008-03-18]

Life and career

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. On appeal the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Quattrone's conviction, ruling, based in part upon the Supreme Court case Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States [http://www.oyez.org/cases/case/?case=2000-2009/20] that Quattrone's jury had been given erroneous jury instructions. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114288329963803188.html?mod=home_whats_news_us WSJ.com (sub. req'd)] [http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=arZl00ZP7Ew4&refer=news_index 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." [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/23/BUGJ1KN91B1.DTL] The National Association of Securities Dealers also dropped their charges. He now "plan [s] to resume [his] business career." [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/22/business/main1924926.shtml] 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 fellow Wharton grad Michael Milken, the Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond king of the 1980s.

Since 2004, Frank Quattrone and his wife Denise have raised money for The Innocence Project. Quattrone said in a speech that at the moment he was found guilty he realized that there must be other innocent people who were in prison but unlike him they lacked the resources to fight for justice (Santa Clara, CA March 29,2008)

In April 2008, Frank Quattrone was reported to be advising Google on the Yahoo takeover deal pending with Microsoft [http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/google-ceo-taps-quattrone-as-adviser-in-yahoo-battle/?hp] . The article reporting the collaboration said: "That Mr. Schmidt (CEO of Google Inc.) would call on Mr. Quattrone is no surprise. The two men have worked together for years, and Mr. Schmidt was even quoted in the press release announcing the creation of Qatalyst (Mr Quattrone's new consulting and investment banking venture [http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/qatalyst-group] ). “I look forward to working with him again and am very enthusiastic about Qatalyst’s prospects for success,” Mr. Schmidt said at the time."

References

External links

* [http://www.nndb.com/people/072/000045934/ NNDB entry] (May be out of date)
* [http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov:8080/isysnative/RDpcT3BpbnNcT1BOXDA0LTUwMDctY3Jfb3BuLnBkZg=/04-5007-cr_opn.pdf#xml=http://10.213.23.111:8080/isysquery/irlc621/1/hilite 2nd Circuit opinion reversing conviction ]