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Nassau County resident Daniel Kamensky, of Roslyn, the founder of the New York-based hedge fund Marble Ridge Capital, has been charged in Manhattan federal court on multiple charges.
Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said that Kamensky’s alleged criminal acts occurred in connection with his scheme to pressure a rival bidder to abandon its higher bid for assets in connection with Neiman Marcus’s bankruptcy proceedings so that Marble Ridge could obtain those assets for a lower price.
Kamensky allegedly then attempted to persuade the rival bidder to cover up the scheme.
“As alleged, Daniel Kamensky disregarded his fiduciary responsibility to unsecured creditors of Neiman Marcus – and broke the law – when he attempted to coerce a competitor to withdraw a higher bid for assets of the bankruptcy estate,” Strauss said.
“As further alleged, acknowledging the illegality of his actions, Kamensky then attempted to obstruct an investigation by trying to persuade the competitor to change his account of the coercion, telling the competitor that otherwise ‘this is going to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.’ As today’s charges show, Kamensky was right about that.”
Following the investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Kamensky, 47, was arrested on Thursday, Sept. 3 and charged with:
- Fraud in the offer of sale of securities;
- Wire fraud;
- Extortion and bribery in connection with a bankruptcy;
- Obstruction of justice.
If he is convicted, Kamensky will face up to 20 years in prison on the top charges.
“As alleged, Kamensky intentionally violated his fiduciary duty as a member of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Neiman Marcus bankruptcy by preventing the sale of securities to an investment bank so he could acquire the same securities at a significantly lower price for his own fund,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney stated.
“In a conversation with an employee of the investment bank, Kamensky went as far as to say, ‘Maybe I should go to jail.’ Today, we’ve removed the ‘maybe,’ and forced him to answer for his conduct.”
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