Financier who stole pension funds running for Congress in NJ-11

Alan B. Bond, a onetime Wall Street prodigy who went to prison for stealing nearly $7 million from pension funds he managed, will be the lone independent candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 11th district in an April 16 special election.

The 64-year-old Montclair resident filed nominating petitions under the slogan “Hope for Tomorrow.”

In 2002, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York charged Bond with a kickback scheme, alleging that he skimmed commission payments and diverted trading profits to his personal accounts.  It took jurors less than an hour to convict Bond after a three-week trial, and he was sentenced to 12 ½ years in a federal prison.  But in 2005, the U.S. Attorney from Maryland requested a reduction in his sentence for his cooperation in another matter, and he was released in 2008.  He paid over $7 million in restitution and fines.

After working at Morgan Guaranty, Goldman Sachs, and W.R. Lazard, he formed a pension management firm with former New York City Comptroller Harrison Goldin in the 1990s and was a frequent guest on Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser.   Bond’s $600 million fund included pension and retirement accounts for the NBA, the Washington Transit Authority Local 689, and the City University of New York. Bond is a Dartmouth graduate and received his MBA from Harvard.

Bond will face Republican Joe Hathaway and, likely, Democrat Analilia Mejia in the special election for the unexpired term of Mikie Sherrill, who was elected governor last year.