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Philly bond buyer fights SEC accusations and his old employer

David W. Baldt says he's looking forward to a hearing that he says will explain what really happened when Lehman Bros. failed and he was forced to shut his Philadelphia-based bond funds

After 37 years as a respected bond picker handling billions of dollars in other peoples' money, for some of the biggest investment firms in the world, from his offices in Wilmington and Philadelphia, David W. Baldt stands accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of violating antifraud provisions in the federal securities laws.

The SEC says Baldt resisted orders by Schroders Plc, his last employer, to liquidate shares so the firm could raise caseh to pay off large clients when the bond market froze after the Lehman Bros. blow-up in September 2008. When Schroders insisted, the government says Baldt then used this inside information to warn his children, who work in the securities industry, to sell their shares. His family members had invested their "life savings" of more than $3 million in the funds he ran for Schroders.

Baldt is contesting the charges, which have already cost him his job. Read the SEC's case here. More in my column in Sunday's Inquirer here.