Daniel Small, a former fund manager at Platinum Partners, wants his conviction for rigging a bondholder vote overturned because he says prosecutors failed to prove he intended to commit a crime, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The report cites a memo sent to the court late last week by Small’s lawyer Seth Levine as saying that his client, who was convicted of securities fraud by a jury in a Brooklyn court in August but acquitted of a wire fraud conspiracy charges, should get a new trial because the law he was accused of breaking was “too vague” and prosecutors failed to establish his criminal intent.
Small’s alleged crimes stem from the sale of Houston-based Black Elk Energy Offshore LLC’s most valuable assets in 2014 as the oil and gas company was heading toward bankruptcy. Black Elk was one of Platinum’s largest investments.
Prosecutors argued that Small, and former colleagues, Mark Nordlicht and David Levy – who are awaiting sentencing after being convicted for their part in the alleged fraud – defrauded Black Elk’s third-party bondholders by diverting $70 million in proceeds from the sale of the oil company’s assets to Platinum.
