Quattrone conviction thrown out by appeals court

NEW YORK, Mar 20 (Reuters) A US federal appeals court today threw out the 2004 conviction of former star banker Frank Quattrone, citing erroneous jury instructions.

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sent the case back to the district court for a new trial, and directed that the case be reassigned to a new judge.

Quattrone was sentenced to 18 months in prison after a Manhattan jury in May 2004 found him guilty of two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering.

The jury concluded that Quattrone had tried to block regulatory and grand jury probes when he instructed colleagues at Credit Suisse First Boston in an e-mail that it was ''time to clean up those files.'' Another jury had deadlocked in 2003 on the same charges.

REUTERS VJ RAI0224