As anticipated by this earlier post, U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas declared a mistrial earlier today on the remaining 12 criminal counts against former Duke Energy trader, Timothy Kramer. Two days ago, the jury acquitted Kramer on seven counts and his co-defendant, former Duke Energy trader Todd Reid, on all counts. Earlier posts on the case are here.
This case establishes once again that it’s far easier in most white collar criminal cases involving the prosecution of agency costs to bludgeon a plea bargain out of the defendants than to obtain a conviction through a fair trial.