Jury finds hedgie Lumiere guilty in 90 mins.
Manhattan federal court jurors took just 90 minutes on Thursday to find Stefan Lumiere, a former hedge fund portfolio manager, guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy charges.
The quick verdict shocked Lumiere’s family and legal team.
“I know my brother is innocent,” the hedgie’s sister, Alexandra Lumiere Gottlieb, told The Post.
Lumiere cheated investors of Visium Asset Management by recruiting outside brokers to send sham prices on securities in his portfolio, federal prosecutors alleged last June.
The scam, which was run between 2011 and 2013, led investors to overpay management and performance fees. Lumiere left Visium in 2013. “I was going through a contentious divorce,” said Gottlieb, who was married to Visium’s founder, Jacob Gottlieb, at the time. “My brother was not welcome there.”
The jury is “confusing charges against a company with charges against an individual,” Gottlieb said.
The once-$8 billion hedge fund imploded last June due to a stampede of redemptions spurred by poor performance and insider trading allegations, the firm said.
Prosecutors during the Lumiere trial relied heavily on testimony by Jason Thorell, a former Visium trader who alerted regulators after growing wary about the calculations of Visium’s asset values.
Thorell also cooperated with the FBI and wore a wire during conversations with Lumiere in 2013, after both had left the fund.
“I’m terribly disappointed by the verdict,” Lumiere’s lawyer, Eric Creizman, told The Post. Sentencing is scheduled for May23.