Stockbroker Accused of Selling Cocaine

A stockbroker in the San Diego branch of a Wall Street firm that was rocked recently by federal cocaine charges against a partner and eight other employees has been arrested in San Diego on similar, but apparently unrelated, cocaine possession charges.

Marshall Klein, 25, a broker with Brooks, Weinger, Robbins & Leeds, was arrested Thursday morning outside the firm’s Mission Valley office and was arraigned Friday in U.S. District Court on a felony charge of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute.

Klein, who prosecutors say was carrying 1.5 ounces of cocaine at the time of his arrest, is accused of selling cocaine to fellow stockbrokers--a charge similar to those made April 16 against the New York City brokers and co-owner Wayne Robbins.

“He has been formally suspended without pay pending the outcome of the charge,” Jana Jones, assistant manager of the San Diego office, said Friday of Klein. She said the reaction in the 15-member branch office was one of shock and disappointment.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Pat Swan said the investigation of Klein, who has worked for the firm for three years and has lived in San Diego for seven, was unrelated to the charges made by the U.S. attorney’s office in New York City against members of the main office.

In the New York case, authorities alleged that brokers traded cocaine for stock and used a company messenger service to transport heroin, and that accounts were steered to brokers who in turn gave their superiors cocaine.

Sale to Agent Alleged

According to Swan, informants in San Diego told the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration about Klein last fall. Swan said Klein sold a gram of 97% pure cocaine to an undercover agent last fall and that they negotiated, inconclusively, a possible sale of three to five kilograms of the drug.

Swan said in an interview that informants told agents that Klein “always carried cocaine on him.”

Klein was arrested by DEA agents at 8 a.m. in the office parking lot on Camino del Rio South. At his home, agents found a gram scale, the box for a larger set of scales, cocaine residue, two small marijuana plants and a couple of ounces of marijuana, Swan said at the arraignment.

Also arrested was Klein’s roommate, Dennis Weisberg, 26, who owns the Del Cerro home the two men share. Weisberg, who works for his father’s construction firm in San Diego, was charged with a felony--possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

He was arrested when agents saw him leaving the house a few minutes after Klein’s arrest, wearing only a pair of pants. He was carrying $6,135 in cash--cash that prosecutors believe he possessed “to facilitate his drug sales,” Swan said.

However, J. William Beard, a lawyer representing Klein and Weisberg, said Weisberg told the arresting agents he had the money because he planned to buy a car Thursday. Beard said Weisberg is a graduate of San Diego State University whose only previous criminal record involved having a dog outside without a leash.

Klein’s only previous record consisted of a charge of disturbing the peace. Beard said Klein was born and raised in New York. He said Klein is single and his parents live in Los Angeles.

Jones, the assistant manager in the Brooks office, said Klein’s arrest came just weeks after an official notice from New York headquarters warning all employees that “if you think you have a problem in your office, ask them to come forward for help.”

Jones said the San Diego office was told Thursday of Klein’s suspension without pay. Once again, she said, employees were urged to “come forward” if they knew of anyone in the office involved with drugs.

“We don’t suspect anyone,” she said. “But then, we didn’t suspect Marshall.”

U.S. Magistrate Roger McKee ordered Klein held in lieu of $20,000 bond. He was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego.