Caspersen sentenced to four years in prison

Former Park Hill partner Andrew Caspersen was sentenced to four years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to swindling his friends, family and a hedge fund out of millions of dollars so he could make trades in the options market.

Caspersen pleaded guilty in July to two criminal counts and admitted stealing $38.5 million from family members and close friends, while soliciting other investors for millions more. Most of the money was subsequently lost on stock options bets.

While prosecutors had sought up to 15 years in prison for the Wall Street executive, US district judge Jed Rakoff accepted the defense’s argument that his behaviour was spurred by a gambling addiction.

The sentencing lasted for three hours and included a testimony from a Yale School of Medicine psychiatrist who was called by the defense to testify about gambling addictions. Caspersen was released on bail and must turn himself in to authorities in January to begin his sentence.

Caspersen joined Park Hill in 2013 to focus on secondaries transactions having previously worked at Coller Capital. He was sacked by Park Hill in March and barred from the private equity industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission in September.