{
  "id": 12494202,
  "title": "Former star US bond manager Leech fined by SEC, following guilty plea in ’cherry-picking’ case",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/former-star-us-bond-manager-leech-fined-by-sec-following-guilty-plea",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-06T23:06:35.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Investing.com",
    "slug": "investing-com",
    "url": "https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/former-star-us-bond-manager-leech-fined-by-sec-following-guilty-plea-in-cherrypicking-case-4935388"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Former bond manager Kenneth Leech has been fined $3 million by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after pleading guilty to obstructing a probe into alleged \"cherry-picking\" practices, according to the regulator. The fine is separate from $100 million in penalties that Leech's previous employer, Western Asset Management Co (Wamco), agreed to pay in June to resolve related SEC charges. Cherry-picking refers to the practice of assigning profitable trades to favored investors while allocating less fortunate trades to other investors. Authorities allege that Leech's scheme involved allocating over $600 million of trades between January 2021 and October 2023, with an additional six to 12 months in prison possible under federal sentencing guidelines. Leech and Wamco have not yet admitted to any wrongdoing. Authorities claim Leech delayed the allocation of trades to boost Wamco's revenue and his own compensation, steering better trades to his \"Macro Opportunities\" portfolio and worse trades to the \"Core\" and \"Core Plus\" portfolios. Prosecutors accused Leech of lying during sworn SEC testimony by answering \"yes\" when asked if he had an allocation in mind when placing trades. Prosecutors dropped four fraud charges against Leech.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}