San Diego Broker in Firm Hit by Drug Arrests Jailed

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 brokers has been arrested in San Diego on similar, but apparently unrelated, cocaine possession charges.

Marshall Klein, a 25-year-old 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 eight of 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 the members of the main office.

According to Swan, informants 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 they negotiated, inconclusively, a possible sale of three to five kilograms of the drug.