The Ted Sihpol defense was rocked yesterday after his former assistant testified the ex-broker pocketed “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in commissions from mutual fund purchases he arranged with Canary Capital.
The testimony from prosecution witness Andrea Wenner directly contradicts Sihpol’s lawyers’ contention the former Bank of America broker received nothing for the purchase, thus lacked any motive.
Evan Stewart, Sihpol’s lead lawyer, told the jury in his opening statement that his client “got nothing” for his work and thus couldn’t be charged with stealing anything.
To hammer home his point, Stewart drew fat zeroes on an overhead projector that were beamed on a seven-foot screen opposite the jury box.
Those images must’ve been fresh in the jurors’ minds yesterday when Wenner smashed that theory.
Wenner, 27, said she helped determine Sihpol’s commission.
“It was a lot of money,” she said. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
It was the first testimony of the two-week-old trial that directly linked Sihpol with a motive.
Sihpol, 37, is charged with helping billionaire Edward Stern’s Canary Capital Partners hedge fund late-trade in six mutual funds. The 40-count indictment claims Sihpol helped Canary steal billions in shares from the funds.
Canary would confirm its purchases after 4 p.m. and Sihpol would fill out pre-stamped order tickets, it is charged.
Wenner said she would simply throw out any blank or unexecuted stamped tickets
The indictment grew out of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s probe of the $8 trillion mutual fund industry. Sihpol is the only person to plead innocent and stand trial.
Stern, heir to the Hartz Mountain fortune, allegedly made $100 million profit from the trades. He paid a $40 million fine and did not admit any wrongdoing.
Stern – the government’s star witness – is expected to testify today in Manhattan Criminal Court in a dramatic courtroom face-off with Sihpol.
With Post wire services