Fund companies can breathe a little easier today: Eliot Spitzer has set his sights on someone that isn't with a mutual fund in his investigation of the fund industry. The case marks the first time Spitzer's office has gone directly after one of the hedge funds with criminal charges related to siphoning assets from a fund.

On Thursday, the New York State Attorney General indicted stock broker James A. Wilson of Trautman Wasserman & Co., Inc. for allegedly "defrauding mutual funds by ... 'late trading'" for hedge funds.

According to the release, Wilson has been indicted on 11 counts, including "Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, and securities fraud," all class "E" felonies.

Wilson was released on $25,000 bail and ordered to remain in the New York tri-state area.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorneys General Harold Wilson and Jeffrey Locke of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau under the supervision of Criminal Prosecutions Bureau Chief Janet Cohn.

Wilson was also the lead prosecutor in the trial of Theodore Sihpol last year. Spitzer's office lost that case with the bulk of the charges being dismissed by the jury. Later interviews with jurors on the Sihpol panel by MFWire.com revealed that Wilson failed to convincely make a legal case against the late trading. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE