[13] Nordlicht's Platinum Partners management companies "projected stability and confidence" to current and prospective investors, reporting positive average returns of 17% from 2003 to 2015, according to a parallel civil lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Murray Huberfeld, an executive of Platinum, reportedly gave Seabrook bribes including a Ferragamo bag stuffed with $60,000 in cash to secure a $20 million pension investment.
[21] Lawyers for Nordlicht argued in court and in a letter dated April 7, 2017 that an FBI agent may have leaked information about the investigation to the press before it became public.
The letter cited news articles in Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post published in the summer of 2016 reporting that Platinum was under investigation.
[22] Reporter Ira Stoll of New Boston Post said of the case: The more one looks into this, the more it looks like the Platinum Partners prosecution is just the latest in a mounting and troubling pattern of examples in which New York-area federal prosecutors and FBI agents have jailed hedge fund managers or destroyed their businesses with publicized raids — only to have the charges eventually overturned by judges or never brought at all.
[23]It was later disclosed via a Freedom of Information Act request that Judge Cogan who heard the Platinum Partners case rejected the notion that a media leak actually occurred.
The jury trial spanned nine weeks as defendants Mark Nordlicht and to other platinum executives invoked various defenses unveiling unruly subject matter purported by the prosecution.
The jury rejected the prosecution's keystone argument purporting the Platinum Partners fund operated "like a Ponzi scheme," finding all defendants not guilty on those five subject charges unanimously.
It’s not like Madoff or something like that.”[30] Cogan noted that the original DOJ press release referred to a “$1.5 billion Ponzi scheme” for which the defendants “were not just acquitted, I mean it was a very weak case”.
[33] The official sentencing memo contains dozens of testimonials from individuals and organizations that have benefited from Nordlicht’s charitable activities, highlighting his significant contributions to educational and religious institutions, as well as his support for underprivileged communities.