Western Asset Pays $100 Million for Leech's $600 Million Allocation Fraud

Western Asset Management settled SEC charges on June 5 over a cherry-picking scheme by former co-chief investment officer Ken Leech. He allegedly routed winning trades to favored clients and losses to others, generating over $600 million in ill-gotten gains. The settlement resolves the firm's supervisory failure but leaves Leech's pending DOJ criminal charges untouched—and potential prison time—intact.