Ex-Bear Hedge Fund Managers Acquitted

The two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers accused of lying to their clients as their funds collapsed were acquitted on all charges this afternoon.

Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin had been charged with securities fraud and wire fraud—Cioffi also faced a count of insider-trading. But despite a series of e-mails in which both men seemed to be painting a gloomy picture of the subprime mortgage market privately while assuring investors that nothing was out of the ordinary, it took the Brooklyn, N.Y., jury less than two days to find them not guilty.