Biography:Kareem Serageldin
Kareem Serageldin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1973 (age 52–53) |
| Education | Yale University (1994) |
| Known for | The only banker in the United States to serve jail time as a result of the 2008 financial crisis |
Kareem Serageldin (/ˈsɛrəɡɛldɪn/) (born in 1973) is a former executive at Credit Suisse. He is notable for being the only banker in the United States to be sentenced to jail time as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, a conviction resulting from mismarking bond prices to hide losses.[1][2]
Early life and education
Serageldin was born in Cairo, Egypt to parents of modest means[according to whom?]. He spent some of his childhood in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States.[3][2] He graduated from Yale University in 1994.[4]
Career
Upon graduating in 1994, he joined the information technology department of Credit Suisse.[2] He moved to London 4 years later to work in the bank's catastrophe bonds business.[2][3] By age 33, he was named the global head of structured credit.[5] By 2007, he was supervising 70 employees and more than $50 billion in trading positions.[3] Despite earning approximately $7 million per year, Serageldin lived modestly; his apartment overlooking London Victoria station was described by his friends as "a grown-up dorm room".[2]
By early 2008, he was fired from Credit Suisse and was reported to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York for falsifying records.[2]
Conviction
On February 1, 2012, Serageldin was charged by Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation[6] as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[7]
On April 12, 2013, Serageldin pleaded guilty to fraudulently inflating the prices of asset-backed bonds which comprised subprime residential mortgage backed securities and commercial mortgage backed securities in Credit Suisse's trading book in late 2007 and early 2008.[8]
On November 22, 2013, Judge Alvin Hellerstein sentenced Serageldin to 30 months in prison.[9][3] Serageldin also agreed to return $25.6 million in compensation to Credit Suisse.[3]
On January 21, 2014, Serageldin was ordered to pay more than $1 million to settle the lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He was also effectively barred from the securities industry.[3][10]
Serageldin said he committed the crime "To preserve my reputation in the bank at a time when there was great financial turmoil".[8]
He served at the Moshannon Valley Correctional Center[1] and was released in March 2016.[11]
See also
- List of major SEC enforcement actions (2009–12)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Why Only One Top Banker Went to Jail for the Financial Crisis". The New York Times. May 4, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/magazine/only-one-top-banker-jail-financial-crisis.html.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Eisinger, Jesse (April 30, 2014). "The Rise of Corporate Impunity". ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/the-rise-of-corporate-impunity.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Raymond, Nate (November 22, 2013). "Former Credit Suisse trader Serageldin gets 30 months in jail". Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-creditsuisse-serageldin/former-credit-suisse-trader-serageldin-gets-30-months-in-jail-idUSBRE9AL13620131122.
- ↑ "Kareem Serageldin '94: 'worst day of my life'". Yale Alumni Magazine. December 1, 2013. https://yalealumnimagazine.com/blog_posts/1643-kareem-serageldin-94-br-worst-day-of-my-life.
- ↑ ABRAMS, RACHEL; LATTMAN, PETER (November 22, 2013). "Ex-Credit Suisse Executive Sentenced in Mortgage Bond Case". The New York Times. https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/ex-credit-suisse-executive-sentenced-in-mortgage-case/.
- ↑ "Manhattan U.S. Attorney and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Announce Charges Against Two Former Credit Suisse Managing Directors and Vice President for Fraudulently Inflating Subprime Mortgage-Related Bond Prices in Trading Book" (Press release). Federal Bureau of Investigation. February 1, 2012.
- ↑ "SEC Charges Former Credit Suisse Investment Bankers in Subprime Bond Pricing Scheme" (Press release). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 1, 2012.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 LATTMAN, PETER (April 12, 2013). "Former Credit Suisse Executive Pleads Guilty to Inflating the Value of Mortgage Bonds". The New York Times. https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/ex-credit-suisse-executive-pleads-guilty-to-inflating-value-of-mortgage-bonds/.
- ↑ "Former Credit Suisse Managing Director Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court To 30 Months In Prison In Connection With Scheme To Hide Losses In Mortgage-Backed Securities Trading Book" (Press release).
- ↑ "U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Plaintiff, v. Kareem Serageldin, David Higgs, Faisal Siddiqui and Salmaan Siddiqui, Defendants". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2012/comp-pr2012-23.pdf.
- ↑ Cohan, William D. (July 21, 2016). "A Clue to the Scarcity of Financial Crisis Prosecutions". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/business/dealbook/a-clue-to-the-scarcity-of-financial-crisis-prosecutions.html.
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