Visium Exec Gets 18-Month Prison For Mismarking Illiquid Securities

Another complex financial fraud case has yielded a prison sentence. On Wednesday, Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced an 18-month prison sentence and $1 million for Stefan Lumiere, an executive at Visium Asset Management Lumiere was found guilty of securities and wire fraud for mismarking prices of illiquid securities. The complex process involves often opaque and illiquid over the counter securities where pricing data isn’t public and fund managers can raise the value of their assets – and increase their incentive fees – with the swipe of a keystroke. This is the third such case of a complex mismarking securities fraud case. Unlike the well-known case of Steven...