NEW YORK, NY November 09, 2009 —A jury in Brooklyn will begin deliberating today in the first criminal trial of Wall Street executives related to the subprime mortgage crisis. Ralph Cioffi and Matt Tannin managed two hedge funds at Bear Stearns that collapsed, eight months before the investment bank, itself, collapsed. WNYC's Lisa Chow reports.

REPORTER: They're both charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. Cioffi faces an additional charge of insider trading. Over the course of the last four weeks prosecutors and the defense have pointed to different comments in emails and investor conference calls to paint two pictures.

The government says Cioffi and Tannin acted like "masters of the universe" who lied to investors over and over again to save themselves. The defense says the two men were extremely committed to their investors, did everything in their power to save the funds, and that the funds collapsed because lenders were scrambling for the exits.

If convicted of just the securities fraud charge, the men could face up to 20 years in prison. For WNYC, I'm Lisa Chow.