Lawyer: Son of CEO not a target in brokerage fraud
IOWA CITY, Iowa—A lawyer for an Iowa brokerage firm says his client does not expect to be charged in connection with the alleged fraud scheme that his father carried out.
Attorney Nicholas Iavarone said Tuesday that investigators told Peregrine Financial Group President Russ Wasendorf he wouldn't be charged last week before he testified in front of a federal grand jury in Cedar Rapids.
The panel later returned an indictment charging Peregrine founder and CEO Russ Wasendorf Sr. with 31 counts of lying to regulators. Wasendorf Sr. pleaded not guilty last week.
Iavarone says "Russ Jr." ran the company's profit centers, but was not involved with the finances of the company. He says he feels betrayed by his father, and stunned that regulators missed the fraud.
