Ex-Bear execs: No missing notebooks in U.S. trial (Reuters)

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Reuters - Two former Bear Stearns Cos fund managers facing trial on fraud charges urged a U.S. judge to block the government from introducing evidence suggesting they caused their trading notebooks to disappear.

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Ralph Cioffi and former colleague Matthew Tannin are accused by U.S. prosecutors of multiple counts of fraud for misleading investors about the health of two Bear hedge funds that failed in 2007, costing investors roughly $1.4 billion.

The funds' failure was an early trigger for the credit crunch and the government-arranged sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Jury selection for their trial is scheduled for October 13. Cioffi also faces an insider-trading charge.

In filings on Monday to U.S. District Judge Frederic Block in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, lawyers for the men said the government lacks proof that Cioffi caused his trading notepad to disappear and that Tannin caused his portable tablet PC, an electronic notepad, to disappear.

The government had indicated it would present evidence of the missing notebooks to show "consciousness of guilt," but the defendants' lawyers said a jury should not be allowed to consider such evidence.