Ex-Silicon Valley Bank VP Gets 15 Months In Fake Documents Case: DOJ

LOS GATOS, CA — A Silicon Valley bank executive who pleaded guilty last year on document-falsification-related charges was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Thursday, the Department of Justice said.

Mounir Gad, 36 of Los Gatos, in his Oct. 27 guilty plea admitted to submitting falsified reference letters in connection with his sentencing on a prior securities fraud conviction, the DOJ said.

Gad, a former Silicon Valley Bank vice president, had previously pleaded guilty to securities fraud violations in connection with an insider trading scheme, the DOJ said. He admitted to violating insider trading laws twice.

Gad in November 2021 submitted 12 reference letters attesting to his character at a time when he sought a lighter sentence, of which six he admitted were inauthentic, according to the DOJ.

The inauthenticity of the letters came to light after an author of a letter read in court informed Gad’s attorney that the letter was fake, the DOJ said.

U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh referenced the inauthentic letter during Gad’s Nov. 3, 2021, sentencing hearing, the DOJ said.

Koh at a Nov. 10, 2021, hearing said portions of the letter she’d found compelling were “lies that Mr. Gad put in the letter,” the DOJ said.

Gad did not initially admit to the other falsifications, the DOJ said.

“I promise you, Your Honor, that was the only one. Every other letter is as it is,” Gad said during the Nov. 10 hearing, according to the DOJ.

In addition to the prison term, Gad was ordered to serve 36 months of supervised release and imposed a $10,000 fine and a $1,300 special assessment. Gad was ordered to surrender on or before May 24 to begin serving his prison term