Former Aequitas Executives’ Fraud Convictions Upheld on Appeal

Three former Aequitas Management LLC executives lost their appellate bid Friday to overturn their convictions for wire fraud and conspiracy following the investment management firm’s 2016 collapse.

Aequitas’s founder and former CEO Robert Jesenik, former chief compliance officer Andrew MacRitchie, and former executive vice president Brian Rice argued that they may have been convicted on an omissions theory without proper jury instructions.

The indictment charged them with making “material misrepresentations and misleading half-truths” to investors about the firm’s financial situation, not omissions. A wire fraud conviction can be premised on omissions, but only if the defendant had a “trusting relationship” ...