High-Flying Harvard Law Grad Charged With $95 Million Fraud Scheme
His family has quite the thing for Harvard Law: his father and three brothers are all HLS alums.
Andrew Caspersen (Park Hill Group)
As we mentioned earlier today, Andrew Caspersen, a 39-year-old Harvard Law School graduate turned Wall Street executive, just got hit with federal charges alleging a $95 million fraud scheme. Federal prosecutors accuse him of stealing $25 million from investors and planning to steal an additional $70 million. For an excellent explanation of Caspersen’s alleged fraud, see former Dealbreaker editor Matt Levine’s detailed post at Bloomberg View.
For present purposes, let’s focus on Andrew Caspersen’s status as legal-world and Wall Street aristocracy. Ever passed time in the Caspersen Student Center at Harvard Law School? Same Caspersen family. Andrew’s father and three brothers all graduated from HLS.[1]
Law Firm Business Development Is More Than Relationship Building
Andrew Caspersen’s father, Finn M.W. Caspersen, was heir to a family fortune tied to the Beneficial Corporation, the consumer-finance company he led as CEO before it got sold in 1998 for $8.6 billion. In 2008, Finn Caspersen pledged $30 million to HLS.[2] In 2009, Finn Caspersen took his own life, amid reports that he was battling kidney cancer and under investigation for tax evasion.
Andrew Caspersen seems to have spent all or most of his post-HLS career in business, according to the American Lawyer. Before joining the Park Hill Group investment advisory firm, where he worked from January 2013 until just now (he got fired after being charged), he spent one year at Westby Corp., a real estate company controlled by the Caspersen family, and nine years at London-based Coller Capital Inc. But two of his three older brothers have stronger ties to the legal world. The oldest brother, Finn Caspersen Jr., worked for a predecessor firm to WilmerHale and is now general counsel at Peapack-Gladstone Bank in New York. The third Caspersen son, Samuel Caspersen, worked at Sullivan & Cromwell and is now in-house counsel at Westby Corp., the same family-controlled real estate company where his brother Andrew once worked. (The second of the four Caspersen boys, Erik Caspersen, is a partner at New York-based 9W Capital Management.)
Here’s another Biglaw tie-in, noted by Bloomberg. Although Andrew Caspersen is now married, he previously dated the late Catherine Fairfax MacRae, granddaughter of one of the founders of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae. LeBoeuf Lamb, of course, was one of the two predecessor firms to the ill-fated Dewey & LeBoeuf. After Catherine MacRae lost her life in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Caspersen reportedly worked with her family to establish a memorial fund in her honor.
One obvious question raised by the allegations against Andrew Caspersen: why would the scion of a fabulously wealthy family, who also earned more than $3 million a year from his job at Park Hill Group, risk it all to, well, just make even more money? That’s not clear. At a court hearing yesterday, Caspersen’s lawyer, federal prosecutor turned McKool Smith principal Daniel Levy, alluded to his client suffering from mental health and substance abuse problems.
Sponsored
AI Presents Both Opportunities And Risks For Lawyers. Are You Prepared?
Happy Lawyers, Better Results The Key To Thriving In Tough Times
Curbing Client And Talent Loss With Productivity Tech
Curbing Client And Talent Loss With Productivity Tech
It’s also not clear how much wealth Caspersen still has. Opposing the prosecution’s $20 million bail request, Levy claimed that “losses have eviscerated any assets” (presumably referring to losses Caspersen suffered while trading options on the S&P 500, which is what he allegedly did with some of the $25 million proceeds). Magistrate Judge James Francis released Caspersen after he posted a $5 million bond, co-signed by three people and secured by two properties.
Princeton and Harvard Law is quite the pedigree, as reflected in the meteoric rises of Justice Elena Kagan and Senator Ted Cruz. But pedigree is not destiny; just ask Andrew Caspersen.
[1] Will the Caspersen Center get renamed? Probably not — the alleged sins of the son shouldn’t affect the late father’s donation, and even though Finn Caspersen himself was being scrutinized for possible tax offenses at the time of his death, he was never convicted. I suppose it’s possible, though; if the HLS crest or seal isn’t sacred, then nothing is (except for, I hope, the Falik Men’s Room).
[2] As noted by the American Lawyer, the elder Caspersen’s contributions to Harvard Law over the years got a shout-out in a 2007 book by Daniel Golden, The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges (affiliate link). Commenting on the book, Finn Caspersen’s Wikipedia entry states, “All four of his sons were graduated from Harvard Law School, though Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Harvard alumnus Daniel Golden, in a book criticizing the role of privilege and wealth at elite colleges, attributed their admission to the prestigious law school to their father’s generosity.”
Ex-Blackstone Exec Is Latest Example Of Proven Fact That You Can’t Trust An Investment Manager With Two Middle Initials [Dealbreaker]
Feds Charge Harvard Law Grad With $95 Million Scheme [Am Law Daily]
Real Investment Adviser Sold Some Fake Investments [Bloomberg View]
Private Equity Executive Accused of Faking Investments [DealBook / New York Times]
Banker Accused of $25 Million Fraud Arose From Gilded Legacy [Bloomberg Business]
Feds: Law grad at finance firm stole $25M, sought $70M in ‘brazen fraud’ [ABA Journal via Morning Docket]
Sponsored
Law Firm Business Development Is More Than Relationship Building
