Singer Co. Chief Guilty of Tax, Securities Fraud

Singer Co. Chairman Paul A. Bilzerian was convicted today of all nine counts of securities fraud and tax violation in federal court in Manhattan.

The panel of six men and six women returned its verdict on the second day of deliberations.

The conviction was the first jury verdict in the government’s more-than-three-year crackdown on Wall Street crime. The Bilzerian case was indirectly spun off from the Ivan Boesky insider trading scandal.

It was the first prosecution of a corporate raider using information derived from the Boesky investigation.

Bilzerian, 38, the Tampa, Fla., corporate raider who won control of Singer last year, was charged with breaking securities and tax laws and making false statements in connection with three failed takeover attempts and another stock transaction in 1985 and 1986.

One Count Dismissed

He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each of the nine counts.

Originally indicted on 12 counts, Bilzerian got one count dismissed in April, and U.S. District Judge Robert Ward combined four conspiracies into two counts Wednesday.

None of the charges involve Bilzerian’s $1.06-billion takeover of Singer, the Stamford, Conn. defense contractor, last year.

The jurors’ verdict seemed to indicate that they believed the government’s chief witness, Los Angeles brokerage boss Boyd Jeffries, who pleaded guilty to securities violations in 1987.

Bilzerian was implicated by Jeffries, who in turn was named by Boesky. Jeffries, who has been cooperating with authorities, also faces a possible prison term.

The tall, mustachioed Bilzerian showed no emotion as he stood to hear the jury’s verdict.

The government said Bilzerian made millions of dollars by accumulating stock in takeover targets while concealing ownership of the stocks in secret accounts and then selling his holdings after the stock price had risen.