NYSE acts Against Jett

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Big Board Acts Against Jett

Published: December 1, 1994
Joseph Jett, the former Kidder, Peabody bond trader accused by the firm of concocting $350 million in phony profits, has essentially been barred from Wall Street by the New York Stock Exchange.

Seven months after Kidder, Peabody & Company dismissed Mr. Jett, the stock exchange said it was punishing Mr. Jett for refusing to testify before the exchange's enforcement division, one of several groups investigating the scandal.

The disciplinary action, which was made on Nov. 3 and disclosed yesterday by the stock exchange, banishes Mr. Jett from trading securities or working for any employer affiliated with the exchange. Such prohibitions by self-regulatory groups have traditionally been observed by the entire brokerage industry.

The action is the first taken by an enforcement body against Mr. Jett. The scandal deeply blemished Kidder's reputation, led to the departure of several high-level Kidder executives and encouraged the firm's parent, the General Electric Company, to sell Kidder to Paine Webber Group Inc. in October.

Mr. Jett, through a spokeswoman, defended his actions before the exchange and contended that his requests for a postponement in the hearings were unfairly denied. He vowed to exonerate himself.

"Today's stock exchange decision arose from an insistence by the exchange that Joseph Jett testify without counsel," the spokeswoman said in a statement.