Former JPMorgan exec pleads guilty to conspiring with UBS broker

Alexander Wright, a former vice president of the municipal derivatives marketing group at a New York financial institution, has pleaded guilty to participating in a bid-rigging conspiracy for municipal finance contracts. According to the DOJ, from June 12, 2002 to June 20, 2002, Wright and other former executives at another financial institution exchanged bid prices so that Wright could change his bid according and win the contract at an artificially inflated price. The public entity thus had to pay a higher price for the contract that it was buying to invest its proceeds from municipal bonds.

Although the financial institutions were unidentified by the DOJ in its press release, Bloomberg identifies Alexander Wright as a former JPMorgan Chase banker and his co-conspirator as Gary Heinz, a former UBS broker.

The DOJ is conducting its ongoing investigation into financial fraud with the SEC, the FBI, the IRS-Criminal Investigation. So far, eleven other individuals and one company have pleaded guilty to similar fraud conspiracies.

Full content: DOJ Press Release

Related content: Screens for Conspiracies and Their Multiple Applications

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