Second Trial for Quattrone Slated to Begin March 22

Frank Quattrone’s second obstruction-of-justice trial is set to begin March 22, after a jury was unable to decide the first time around whether the ex-Silicon Valley financier had broken the law when he endorsed the destruction of internal records.

U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who presided over the first case, set the date for the second criminal trial of Quattrone, who was a star investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston during the 1990s.

Owen also is expected to preside over the new trial.

Quattrone has been accused of obstructing justice and tampering with witnesses when he forwarded a co-worker’s e-mail that urged staff to “clean up” investment banking files. Jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision on the charges in the four-week first trial, which ended Oct. 24.

At the time he sent the e-mail, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a grand jury were looking at whether shares of the most popular initial public offerings had been issued to hedge funds in exchange for kickbacks to CSFB.

As part of those inquiries, the SEC and the grand jury sought documents kept in the files of Quattrone’s investment banking unit. Quattrone said he had been unaware the subpoenas had related to anything in his division.