Ex-Fund Manager Seeks to Block Evidence on E-mail Account

The Wall Street Journal , Sep. 21, 2009
By Chad Bray

NEW YORK — Lawyers for former Bear Stearns fund manager Matthew Tannin have asked a judge to prohibit prosecutors from introducing evidence at his criminal trial regarding the erasure of his personal email account in 2008, calling it an "eleventh-hour smear."

In a letter Monday, Susan Brune, a lawyer for Mr. Tannin, said the government’s evidence has failed to establish "that Mr. Tannin destroyed any documents" and Mr. Tannin and his counsel have preserved all documents.

At a hearing last week, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn said that they had received a letter from Google Inc. indicating Mr. Tannin’s Gmail account was erased in March 2008.

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