Hedge-fund founder Dan Kamensky pleaded guilty in a federal prosecution stemming from his efforts to suppress bidding for a piece of Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. during its chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Kamensky pleaded guilty to one count of bankruptcy fraud and will be sentenced in May, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. The founder of hedge-fund firm Marble Ridge Capital LP, Kamensky was arrested in September after he was caught trying to get rid of his competition to acquire shares in Neiman’s valuable Mytheresa e-commerce business. He previously admitted to Justice Department bankruptcy watchdogs that he had used his pull with investment bank Jefferies LLC, where he was a client, to coerce it to scrap a competing offer for the Mytheresa shares so he could buy them himself for less. “DO NOT SEND IN A BID,” he wrote in a chat message to a Jefferies employee, according to a government inquiry into the matter. Though the bankruptcy-fraud charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence, prosecutors have agreed to recommend a term of between 12 and 18 months for Kamensky. His sentence is up to the federal judge overseeing his case.
