A former London-based Credit Suisse Group AG trader was spared prison on Tuesday over his role in artificially inflating subprime mortgage bond prices, in one of the few U.S. criminal prosecutions stemming from the financial crisis. The former trader, David Higgs, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to a conspiracy charge, was ordered to forfeit $900,000 to the government and pay a $50,000 fine by U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in New York. According to the office of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Higgs provided "extremely substantial assistance" after agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors. Another Credit Suisse trader, Salmaan Siddiqui, also pleaded guilty in 2012 and is scheduled to be sentenced this month. Higgs's former boss Kareem Serageldin, once Credit Suisse's global head of structured credit, entered his own guilty plea in April 2013 and was sentenced in November to 2-1/2 years in prison. Prosecutors said that Higgs's cooperation helped build a case against Serageldin
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