Frank Quattrone, the former Credit Suisse Group investment banker whose criminal obstruction charges may be set aside by U.S. prosecutors, retains the support of technology industry leaders who could help revive his career.

Quattrone, the son of a garment presser, was raised in a poor neighborhood of south Philadelphia. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1979 and became head of technology investment banking in 1990. In 1996, he moved to Deutsche Bank AG and in July 1998 to Credit Suisse.

Two weeks later, more than 130 investment bankers, analysts and other staff followed him from Deutsche Bank to Credit Suisse.

The group was based in Palo Alto, California, near the Sand Hill Road addresses in neighboring Menlo Park where many of the largest venture-capital firms are based. Over the years, Quattrone’s group handled IPOs for dozens of companies, including Amazon.com Inc., Cisco and Adobe Systems Inc.

More here from bloomberg

(I was part of that 130 bankers that moved with him to CSFB so I’m biased). . . Frank’s prosecution was a vestige of the web 1.0 (aka dot-com) era and the bust in 2002-2004 that followed. However, now that the web is back (as in 2.0), investors are going gaga once again over technology companies, and twenty somethings are once more on the covers of national magazines . . . looking for a scapegoat for the bust that followed sounds quite anti-climatic and counter productive. (proof that the valley does not have a master hypester, but an entire generation full of them) Even more so . . . the rest of us (VC’s, bankers, entreperneurs) who survived the bust and came out better than ever, not giving Frank that same chance seemed somewhat unfair. It wasnt that long ago that VC’s and dot-com snake oil sales guys (read entrepreneurs) were equally prosecuted by the mass media for bringing down the great american economy. A quick 2 years and a Google IPO later, they are again celebrated as the driver of great American global competitiveness. . . innovators and risk takers . . . the great purveyors of the equally great American Dreams.

At a time, when FuckedCompany’s Pud has joined the new party on the other side of the fence (not for workers and employees but for VC’s, executives, and techcrunch parties) . . . the bust has to be a distant memory . . .

Frank was unlucky to have to been the high profile scapegoat while the rest of us laid low and made our comebacks . . . letting frank take (the reputational not legal) blame for the excess that the entire valley participated in . . . . . And THAT is the reason Frank’s comeback is without doubt. . . Guilt . . .

Geoff Yang, a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures in Menlo Park, California, said he “absolutely'’ would work with Quattrone if the government dropped charges against him and he decided to step back into technology investing.

“I’ve always found Frank straightforward and honest in my dealings with him,'’ Yang said.

“I continue to believe he is a man of honor,'’ Barksdale, the former Netscape CEO, wrote in one of the letters to the court in 2004 in advance of his sentencing. Other Silicon Valley executives who wrote letters urging leniency included Adobe Co- Chairman Charles Geschke and Intuit Inc. founder Scott Cook.

“He’s a high-quality guy,'’ said Dick Kramlich, general partner of New Enterprise Associates, a Menlo Park-based venture capital firm. “He would be welcomed back, and he would be extremely effective.'’

“I actually wouldn’t be surprised to see Frank focus even more of his efforts on the California Innocence Project rather than get back into finance full-time,'’ Burnham, the author of the technology blog, said.

“If he does get back into the game, I think he’s much more likely to take part as a principal investor rather than a banker.'’

These are the words of men who knew in their hearts that Frank took one on the chin for the entire team.

(Plus an equally strong incentive. . . money. . . . Given that the current generation of valley bankers have yet to figure out how to help VC’s make money from pubic exits, they must be clamoring for some help from Frank . . . if he goes back to banking)

Edit: Jason Woodrow hits the nail on the head on the last piont I alluded to . . .