Stephen Kenneth Leech II, a former co-chief investment officer at Western Asset Management Company (Wamco), has agreed to pay $3 million to settle allegations he steered hundreds of millions to certain portfolios, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Oct. 6.
From January 2021 to October 2023, Leech, who managed billions of dollars in client assets, directed more than $600 million toward portfolios he favored and away from ones that weren’t in his favorites basket, a practice known as “cherry-picking,” the SEC said in a complaint filed Nov. 25, 2024, in US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
