Ex-MIT professor agrees to plead guilty to ..

Securities • Professor and his son, a hedge fund manager, lost investors $140 million.

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Boston • A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and his son who ran hedge funds have agreed to plead guilty to securities fraud charges that federal prosecutors say cost their investors $140 million.

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that 69-year-old Gabriel Bitran and 36-year-old Marco Bitran misled their investors, telling them they had a history of successfully earning money based on the elder Bitran's theories.

Authorities say some money was put into funds connected to Bernard Madoff. The duo ultimately lost $140 million of their investors' principal. Some investors lost as much as 75 percent of their principal.

Both agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

Gabriel Bitran is a former professor and associate dean of MIT's Sloan School.

Ex-MIT professor agrees to plead guilty to fraud