A Manhattan federal judge granted a sweeping suppression motion in the government's fraud case against financier Benjamin Wey Tuesday, siding with the defendant over Fourth Amendment concerns in a significant setback to federal prosecutors.

In a 96-page opinion, Southern District Judge Alison Nathan said the material garnered in the government's searches of Wey's New York Global Group offices and home required suppression because the “essentially limitless” warrants weren't specific enough.

He also said the government had unreasonably retained the confiscated material in a “lengthy (and continuing) retention and indiscriminate review.”