Bob Stewart was always there for his son -- as a soccer coach and Boy Scout leader, as the proud parent of a Yale graduate and then an investment banker.
Now it may be his own words that send his son to prison.
Sean Stewart, an ex-managing director at Perella Weinberg Partners LP, goes before a jury on July 25 on insider-trading charges. It promises to be a Wall Street trial unlike any other. A key piece of government evidence is a secret recording not of a trader or corporate insider -- but of a father allegedly confiding in a friend that his son slipped him illicit tips.
The case is as much family tragedy as courtroom drama. Bob pleaded guilty to a felony, Sean could be jailed, and Bob’s bond with Sean -- “as a role model, mentor and friend” -- is “irreparably damaged,” as Bob’s lawyers told the judge who sentenced him in May to probation.
“The whole thing has floored me,” the family’s priest, Thomas Gallagher, said in an interview. “I was flabbergasted.”
Family Dynamics
Yet, in a twist that may require jurors to dissect Stewart family dynamics, Sean may cast blame on his dad as a way to save himself. Sean’s defense likely hinges on convincing jurors that his father exploited their relationship by misusing information he picked up from his son and trading on it without his knowledge, a person familiar with the case said.
When Bob pleaded guilty, he admitted he got confidential information from Sean but didn’t say Sean knew he was using it.
Sean and Bob Stewart declined to comment on the case, their lawyers said. After his arrest, Sean was fired from Perella Weinberg. His first set of attorneys quit when he couldn’t pay them, and he’s now represented by court-appointed lawyers.
According to prosecutors, Sean tipped his father to five health-care mergers from 2011 to 2014 while he worked as an investment banker at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Perella Weinberg. In exchange, they say, Bob paid $10,000 for a photographer at Sean’s wedding and gave his son an additional $15,000. The father shared tips with a friend, Dick Cunniffe, and the two pocketed more than $1 million trading on the leaks, prosecutors said.