Ken Leech, the 71-year-old former co-chief investment officer at Western Asset Management Co., pleaded guilty on June 12 in Manhattan federal court to obstructing an SEC investigation. The plea came just three days before Leech was set to stand trial on far more serious charges, including securities fraud and investment adviser fraud.
Western Asset Management, known as WAMCO, managed roughly $229 billion in assets as of March 2026. Leech was one of the people running the show at one of the largest fixed-income managers on the planet.
The cherry-picking scheme
From January 2021 through October 2023, Leech allegedly ran what regulators call a “cherry-picking” scheme. That meant allocating more than $600 million in favorable bond trades to preferred client portfolios. Over $600 million in unfavorable trades got dumped onto disfavored clients.
The total impact of Leech’s alleged trade allocation malpractice came to approximately $1.2 billion in combined gains and losses. The original charges against Leech, which included securities fraud, were unsealed on November 25, 2024. During the SEC’s investigation, Leech provided what prosecutors described as false testimony about his trade allocation practices, specifically during testimony on March 6, 2024.
