EON

The current financial crisis has caused nothing but economic ruin for millions of people.

The most common villains for what is occurring have been the big bankers and the hedge funds.

A recent example of this is the trial of two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Mathew Tannin. What happened was the government had charged the two with fraud and conspiracy as a number of different emails highlight the overall knowledge that they had as the sub prime market was collapsing.

The prosecution claimed that they were telling investors about the optimistic future of the fund while knowingly hiding the fact that they had reservations about what they were doing.

This can be seen through various email correspondence that the two men had in April 2007 with one email saying, “The sub-prime market looks pretty damn ugly.”

After a lengthy trial a jury found both men not guilty.

The main reason for their acquittal was the email exerts that the government is showing as evidence made it clear that both Cioffi and Tannin were unsure what to do at the time. Given the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt to convict the of the charges meant that the jury must acquit.