NEW YORK, NY November 10, 2009 —A federal jury in Brooklyn has acquitted two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers of lying to investors. Prosecutors had claimed Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin hid warning signs that their funds were about to implode - costing investors some $1.6 billion dollars. WNYC's Lisa Chow listened to the verdict and spoke to jurors afterward. And she tells us the jury just wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.

REPORTER: They thought that both sides made good arguments. But they said that there were just moments where the credibility of the witnesses was put into question during cross examination. One juror told me that he felt the government was taking these lines of emails totally out of context and if you read the full email you would really get a sense that both Cioffi and Tannin were struggling to keep these funds alive. Basically what they were trying to prove was fraud and intent to defraud investors and they didn't feel the government met that bar, to prove intent.

HOST: Chow says the defendants' families and attorneys all broke down in tears.

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