Former Western Asset bond manager pleads guilty to obstructing SEC probe

Kenneth Leech, antecedently a starring enslaved manager astatine Western Asset Management, entered a blameworthy plea connected Friday successful transportation with obstructing an probe into alleged "cherry-picking".

He pleaded blameworthy to 1 number of obstructing a US Securities and Exchange Commission proceeding, avoiding a proceedings that had been owed to statesman connected Monday successful national tribunal successful Manhattan.

Leech, the erstwhile co-chief concern serviceman of Wamco, had been facing 4 fraud counts implicit accusations that helium ran a cherry-picking strategy worthy much than $600m betwixt January 2021 and October 2023. Those counts are acceptable to beryllium dropped.

According to prosecutors, Leech gave mendacious grounds nether oath during SEC grounds successful March 2024, including erstwhile helium replied yes aft being asked whether helium had "an allocation successful mind" erstwhile making trades.

Leech was quoted by the Financial Times arsenic saying to Judge connected Friday: "I knew that I was giving mendacious and misleading grounds astir my commercialized allocation process, and that giving that grounds was wrong".

Under national sentencing guidelines, Leech whitethorn look betwixt six and 12 months successful prison, a substantially lighter result than a fraud condemnation would person carried, reported Reuters.

Last week, Western agreed to wage a $100m civilian punishment to the SEC to settee the regulator's probe into Leech.

In a filing, the SEC said the fixed income group, which managed astir $229bn astatine the extremity of March 2026, had "failed to instrumentality tenable steps to observe and forestall this behaviour by its erstwhile co-CIO" and was "aware" his trading and allocation practices "diverged from those of different portfolio managers".

"Former Western Asset enslaved manager pleads blameworthy to obstructing SEC probe" was primitively created and published by Private Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand.