Wall Street executive back to work after charges dropped
NEW YORK — A Wall Street executive shed his electronic ankle bracelet Wednesday and emerged smiling from a courthouse to say he’s ready to restart his financial business a day after prosecutors dropped criminal charges against him.
Benjamin Wey, 45, had been wearing the bracelet as part of bail conditions put in place after he was charged two years ago with secretly building a financial interest in companies before manipulating their stock prices to score millions of dollars in illegal profits.
The judge who was going to preside over an October trial tossed out most of the evidence against him last month after concluding investigators used a search warrant to overreach, snatching things like children’s school records, medical prescriptions, divorce records and decade-old clippings from the sports section of a college newspaper during raids on his Manhattan business and home.
Prosecutors dropped charges including securities and wire fraud Tuesday, citing the loss of evidence. A government spokesman declined to comment Wednesday.