SAN JOSE – A former Silicon Valley Bank executive will serve 15 months in prison for falsifying letters of reference to obtain a lighter sentence in a securities fraud case, federal prosecutors said.
Mounir Gad, the bank’s former vice president, was charged last year with six counts of identity theft, three counts of tampering with documents, three counts of tampering and one count of criminal contempt, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said the 36-year-old Los Gatos resident pleaded guilty to the charges in October. In doing so, he acknowledged he previously had been charged with – and pleaded guilty to – securities fraud violations in connection with an insider trading scheme.
When Gad appeared in court in November 2021 to be sentenced for the securities fraud violations, he argued he should not be sent to prison and instead should be sentenced only to probation, prosecutors said. He submitted 12 letters of reference in support of his position.
Half of the letters, however, were not authentic. Prosecutors said Gad made changes to three of them without the knowledge or permission of their authors and submitted another three on behalf of individuals who had not written any letter of support.
The scheme came to light after a judge in the securities fraud case spoke about the falsified letters on the record. The purported author later told Gad’s attorney she had not written the content the judge referenced, prosecutors said.
When confronted, Gad did not admit six of the letters were falsified. Instead, he told the judge, “I promise you, Your Honor, that was the only one. Every other letter is as it is,” prosecutors said. A subsequent investigation revealed the claim was untrue.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Edward J. Davila ordered Gad to serve three years of supervised release as well as to pay a $10,000 fine and a $1,300 special assessment.
Prosecutors said Gad must surrender on or before May 24 to begin serving his prison term.
Source: www.mercurynews.com