Former hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Mathew Tannin are charged with keeping critical information from investors prior to the investment bank's collapse last fall.
Judge Frederic Block warned prosecutors not to stray beyond the evidence already collected, referring to 9 million documents, but none related to the executives' lavish salaries and comfortable lifestyles, the New York Daily News reported Monday.
Evidence can include an email from Tannin that says, "we could blow up â?¦ I was worried that this would all end badly and that I would have to look for work."
Prosecutors, however, will not be able to point out Cioffi's three Ferraris, country club memberships or other signs of a high-rolling lifestyle, the newspaper said.
Jury selection begins Tuesday in the first trial hinged to the financial meltdown that took down Wall Street behemoths Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch last year.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty to deceiving shareholders in order to prevent them from withdrawing funds from their Bear Stearns accounts.
www.upi.com

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