Government Seeks Long Jail Term For Onetime Fundraiser Nemazee

24th Jun 2010 16:24

By David Benoit Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to sentence Hassan Nemazee, a onetime prominent Democratic fund-raiser and New York businessman, to a prison term as long as 19 and a half years for his $292 million fraud. Nemazee, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and three counts of bank fraud in March, defrauded Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C) and HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) between 1998 and 2009, according to prosecutors. In a court filing late Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara asked U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein to impose a sentence of 188 to 235 months, the full sentencing guideline, despite Nemazee's guilty plea. Bharara called the crimes Nemazee committed "staggering." The letter said that even after Nemazee was questioned about fraud at Citi, he went on to defraud HSBC, and that Nemazze's character and action merited the strict sentence. "At a moment when his fundamental character was tested--faced with the choice to proceed yet again with the fraud as against a new victim (HSBC) or finally put an end to it--the defendant chose to steal yet another $75 million," the letter said. The government also cited the "extremely lavish lifestyle" Nemazee lived and his use of the money to "build up his reputation, including as a political kingmaker" as justification for the full sentence. "In short, the ultra-lavish lifestyle that the defendant engaged in with the stolen money suggests that part of the motivation for the defendant's crime was simple greed and a desire to live well beyond the means that honest work, talent, and luck could allow him," the letter read, listing properties purchased in Italy and part of a $1.72 million yacht, among other expenditures. The government also argued that Nemazee's meetings with prosecutors and the information he supplied, while useful in corroborating other witnesses, was "of limited utility" and didn't provide new evidence worthy of reducing his sentence. Nemazee had said at his guilty plea that he had intended to repay what he had borrowed. "In the 1990s, I was facing severe financial difficulties," Nemazee said at the time. "I decided to borrow my way out." A lawyer for Nemazee wasn't immediately available for comment Thursday. Nemazee, who was involved in various presidential campaigns and once served as finance chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was initially charged criminally in August 2009 related to a loan he fraudulently obtained from Citigroup's Citibank unit. -By David Benoit, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 24, 2010 11:24 ET (15:24 GMT)