Dotcom fraud pair facing US jail sentences
Two stars of the dot-com era, who were also among the biggest donors to London arts and education, face jail in the US after being found guilty of fraud.
Guilty: Alberto Vilar of Amerindo Investment Advertisers stole money from clients
Alberto Vilar, 68, co-founder of Amerindo Investment Advisers, faces the prospect of up to 20 years in jail after receiving guilty verdicts on all 12 counts of fraud and money laundering levelled against him.
His partner in the now-defunct Amerindo, Gary Tanaka, 65, was acquitted on nine of the 12 charges.
Amerindo, which was based in London, New York and san Francisco, at one stage had $10bn (£6.6bn) under management.
Much of it was pumped into soaraway high-tech stocks such as Microsoft, Cisco and Intel. One of their funds had a 250% return in 1999.
Hailed as heroes by their clients, who ranged from private individuals to huge public institutions, they made fortunes for themselves in management fees.
In 2000, Vilar was claiming to be 'the largest supporter of classical music, opera, and ballet in the world'. Among his gifts was £10m to London's Royal opera House for the Vilar Floral Hall, its showpiece foyer.
Tanaka, a Japanese-American who lives in south-west London (he hasn't seen his wife and youngest child since his arrest in New York three and a half years ago) rose to become one of the world's most successful racehorse owners.
He committed to donating £27m to Imperial College, his alma mater, for the new Tanaka Business school.
Recently, though, their names have vanished from the bodies they funded. It's now the plain Floral Hall and Imperial Business School.
Their fortunes plummeted at the same time as the dotcom bubble burst.
They were arrested in May 2005, after one of their clients, heiress Lily Cates, the mother of Hollywood actress Phoebe Cates, claimed they had stolen $5m from her. Cates had been an Amerindo client for 18 years.
Guilty: Co-founder Gary Tanaka
They were charged in 2006. Prosecutors said that after tech shares crashed in october 2002, the partners were deep in debt and stole money from clients to pay their bills.
These included paying a US arts college to which Vilar had pledged money and to make mortgage payments on his New York apartment.
Prosecutors argued that Amerindo invested in risky stocks against the wishes of clients, offering investors a sham product in guaranteed fixed-rate deposits.
Vilar's attorney, Herald Price Fahringer, said he would appeal the verdict on behalf of his client. 'We are deeply disappointed by the jury's verdict,' Fahringer said.
Tanaka is in poor health. His attorney Glenn Colton said he will 'pursue all post-trial remedies' but he did not specifically say whether that would include an appeal.
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