Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, a hedge fund incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in New York, controlled a variety of investment vehicles through myriad subsidiaries. The company provided investment advisory and management services to those vehicles in return for management fees and incentive income. Och-Ziff’s common stock was registered with the SEC and listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Michael Leslie Cohen served as an Executive Managing Director at Och-Ziff as well as a member of the company's partnership management committee and head of the company's European Office, which oversaw investments in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Cohen was an "investment adviser" under the law.
According to the allegations in the indictment, beginning in about 2008, Cohen and several co-conspirators schemed to defraud a large U.K. charitable foundation, which was a client of Och-Ziff. Among other things, the indictment alleges that Cohen failed to disclose to the charitable foundation one of the sellers of shares in an African mining company, an Och-Ziff joint venture that had been created for the purpose of investing in African mining, oil, and mineral concessions, owed Cohen millions of dollars on a delinquent personal loan and that Cohen himself had a personal interest in the mining company. Moreover, the indictment alleges that once the SEC began an investigation into Och-Ziff in 2011, Cohen produced fake documents in an effort to obstruct the investigation. The SEC, and later DOJ, investigation eventually led to the related FCPA charges brought against Och-Ziff.
On October 5, 2017, the DOJ filed a ten count indictment in the Eastern District of New York against Cohen alleging (1) conspiracy to commit investmet adviser fraud, (2) investment adviser fraud, (3) conspiracy to commit wire fraud, (4-7) wire fraud, (8) conspiracy to obstruct justice, (9) obstruction of justice, and (10) making false statements.
Though no plea agreement appears in the docket, the sentencing memoradum submitted by the DOJ indicates that Cohen in fact pled guilty to one count of making a false statement pusuant to a plea agreement on July 16, 2019.
On November 19, 2019, the court sentenced Cohen to three months in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of $250,000 plus a mandatory assessment of $100.
The SEC also brought a lawsuit against Cohen on January 26, 2017, but on July 12, 2018, the court dismissed the claims agianst Cohen because they were outside the five year statute of limitations.
In related proceedings, on September 29, 2016, the SEC ordered Och-Ziff, its subsidiary OZ Management, and its CEO and CFO to cease and desist violations of the FCPA and various sections of the Advisors Act. Och-Ziff also entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the DOJ, and OZ Africa Management pled guilty in a separate enforcement action. In all, the company was ordered to pay over $412 million dollars in sanctions. Also, a criminal complaint was filed on August 12, 2016 in the district court for the Eastern District of New York against Samuel Mebiame, a Gabonese national, based on his involvement in the Och-Ziff bribery scheme. On December 9, 2016, the DOJ filed an Information in the Eastern District of New York against Mebiame alleging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. On the same date, Mebiame pled guilty to the charge. On June 14, 2017, the court sentenced Mebiame to 2 years in prison and ordered him to pay a mandatory assessment of $100.
