Morgan Stanley > The Curry Scandal > The Sting

Christian Curry in Trouble: Morgan Stanley Gloats

Christian Curry was caught attempting to hack into Morgan Stanley’s e-mail system and plant racist and homophobic messages to bolster his employment wrongful-termination case against the firm. He was arrested in August 1998. The events leading to his arrest are:

• 1. Curry befriended Charles Joseph Luethke during his Columbia days apparently as Kappa Delta Rho (KDR) brothers during the summer of 1994. They hit-it-off and they even shared a room.
• 2. Curry alleged that very soon Luethke started borrowing money from him and running up expensive telephone bills. One day unsavory characters appeared at the fraternity house to collect money from Luethke and threatened violence to Curry and his friends. That terminated their friendship. Luethke denied these.
• 3. They lost touch until June 1998 - just after Curry was fired by Morgan Stanley. Luethke ran into Ms. Marisa Wheeler, Curry's girlfriend, not far from their Riverside Drive apartment.
• 4. According to Curry, Luethke told Marisa Wheeler that he was one of Curry's best friends from KDR fraternity and got their phone number. Moreover, according to Curry, he told Wheeler that he had all those e-mails from people at Morgan Stanley, calling Christian Curry faggot, nigger and all this stuff, and wanted to show that to them.
• 5. Curry claimed that Luethke began calling his apartment as often as 25 times a week, at first expressing concern over the his’s firing, then expressing interest in settlement monies he might get from Morgan Stanley. Luethke said it was Curry who brought up the idea of profiting from his firing. "He offered that if I had gone along with his plan–to plant e-mails on the Morgan Stanley system–that just as he gave the offer to the undercover cop, he had offered to me [a cut of the settlement]."
• 6. Curry said that he asked Luethke to go away and called him once stating that if he called him again, he would kill him.
• 7. One day Luethke contacted Curry requesting him for a meeting where he could show him the incriminating emails. Curry agreed.
• 8. Curry wanted the emails but Luethke wanted 10 percent of the settlement. Curry agreed. Then Luethke stalled for a few weeks, according to him.
• 9. A hacker friend of Luethke, from Morgan Stanley, called up Curry and dictated to him one of the emails over the phone. Luethke told Curry that his hacker friend could plant similar messages in their computer system.
• 10. On August 17, 1998, Curry and Luethke met the hacker friend in a small park on East 43rd Street near Lexington Avenue.
• 11. This hacker friend calls up Curry to meet him at the same place. On August 20, 1998 Curry went to see him alone. Curry gave him $200 and a handwritten note - sample email - to be planted and was immediately arrested. [That hacker friend was an undercover cop.]
• 12. There were at least five felony charges against him, including attempted computer trespass, tampering with physical evidence and fifth-degree conspiracy.
• 13. After the arrest, spokesmen for Morgan Stanley reiterated that they had fired Mr. Curry for abusing his expense account. Firm insiders painted him as a bad seed whose credibility had been crushed by his felony charges.

Morgan in Deep Trouble; Christian Curry Gloats

After nine months of investigations, on MAy 18, 1998, Assistant District Attorney Leroy Frazer announded that all the charges against Christian leigh Curry were being dropped. "The post-arrest investigation has revealed that while there was clearly probable cause for defendant’s arrest, we do not believe we could sustain our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt at trial," said Mr. Frazer in his statement to the Manhattan court. "It was learned after arrest that the confidential informant had met with officials at Morgan Stanley and informed them of defendant’s alleged intent [to plant e-mails] … The investigation further revealed that there had been ongoing negotiations between officials at Morgan Stanley and the [confidential informant]."

Who could this "confidential informant" be? It was none other than, as you would have guessed it by now, Charles Joseph Luethke, the old pal of Curry. He worked with Morgan Stanley and letting informed NYPD who could run their sting against Curry and arrest him. It was reported that between two and five Morgan Stanley officials were involved in the negotiations and payoffs to Luethke. The company wired Luethke $10,000 just days after Mr. Curry's arrest. In court documents, the firm called this payment "entirely legal" and described it as a "reward" to a "whistle-blower informant."

How did this plot come to surface. It appears that a small newspaper - The BLACK STAR NEWS - run by an idealist Columbia graduate Milton Allimadi reported this first. Allimadi through some tricks was able to get the incriminating documents from Mr. Luethke. While it was virtually ignored by the rest of the media, it was hard to ignore by the DA's office.

As a result of this District Attorney started criminal investigation of Morgan Stanley for the alleged payments to Charles Joseph Luethke and for failing to disclose their relationship with him to prosecutors. Two lawyers were suspended at the firm and its head counsel resigned a few days later. The outside firm hired by Morgan and dealing with this found the firm didn't break any laws.

Spokesman Wayne Brison of District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office said that investigation showed no indication that Morgan Stanley tried to hide its payment to Leuthke and its failure to tell prosecutors about its contacts with Leuthke was due to its inexperience in dealing with law enforcement officials and a lack of appreciation for the effect the failure to disclose might have in a criminal case.

The day after the DA's office dropped charges against Curry, his lawyer slapped the firm with a $1.3 billion racial and sex orientation discrimination lawsuit.