Rye Resident Freeman, Goldman, Giuliani and Suggestions of a Pardon

In a recent opinion piece ("A Wall Street Witch Hunt") in The New York Times, writer William Cohan tells the history of Club Road resident Robert Freeman. The Rye resident (then and now) was the former head of Goldman's risk arbitrage department.

Freeman was arrested in 1987 on charges of insider trading, was prosecuted by then United States Attorney for the Southern District Rudolph Giuliani and served four months in jail. Writer Cohan argues prosecutorial overreach and suggests a presidential pardon. The story also mentioned Water's Edge resident James Flick.

It is quite a tale:

"Freeman was led across the trading floor to the elevators and then was taken down to Broad Street. Once outside, he was handcuffed, put in a van, and taken to the federal courthouse in Foley Square to be arraigned. When he got out of the van, Goldman’s head of security, Jim Flick — a neighbor of Freeman’s from Rye, N.Y. — threw a raincoat over Freeman’s wrists and the assembled press snapped pictures of the Goldman partner heading into the courthouse...

Now 67, Bob Freeman still lives in the same house in Rye with his wife, Margo, as he did on the day he was arrested. His children have grown. He plays golf when he can. He is recovering from cancer. He thinks a lot about what happened to him. He has never really worked again. He missed out on his chance for an even more senior position at Goldman Sachs and a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars that other Goldman senior partners received when Goldman went public a decade ago."

Comments

[Charmian Neary]

@divman,
I am just reading your letter now as I read My Rye less often "off-season".
I knew one of the two men to whom you refer. He was young and thoughtful and truly brilliant. I don't know whether he was guilty or not. I believe he was not. His career was certainly destroyed by the arrest and the subsequent notoriety.
I am glad that someone else here in Rye has not forgotten what happened to these men.

[Ryemart]

Bob Freeman was a highly effective arbitrageur at the peak of his career when Guiliani's craziness bulldozed everything in its path. I'm glad to hear that Bob is still enjoying Margot, Rye and golf.

[Matt Fahey]

If he does end up rotting in hell, he'll be playing second fiddle to Spitzer.

[divman]

Guiliani also arrested 2 senior partners at Kidder Peabody who were never convicted of anything but whose careers were destroyed .

This was 100% garbage . It was 100% Guliani using his office to look tough and make a name for himself .

May Guliani rot in hell for shameless willingness to destroy good men to advance his political aspirations