Former US congressman among 9 indicted in insider trading cases

NEW YORK (Associated Press) — A former US congressman from Indiana, tech executives, a man training to be an FBI agent and investment banker were among nine people charged in four separate and unrelated insider trading schemes revealed Monday with Disclosure of indictments in New York City.

It was one of the most significant law enforcement attacks on insider trading in a decade, and the attorney general and other federal officials are pledging new enthusiasm for similar prosecutions in the future. They said the fraud resulted in millions of dollars in illicit profits for the defendants on the coasts and in Central America.

Stephen Baer was accused in court papers of participating in insider trading during the $26.5 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, which was announced in April 2018. An indictment identified him as someone who embezzled secrets he learned as a consultant to gain $350,000 in total. illegal.

Jupiter, 63, of Noblesville, Indiana, was arrested Monday in his state. He served on the telecommunications industry oversight committees when he was a Republican member of Congress from 1993 until 2011.

He was described as having purchased Sprint bonds in March 2018 just a day after he attended a golf outing with a T-Mobile manager who told him about the company’s non-public plan to acquire Sprint, according to a civil case against Buyer by The Buyer. Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court in Manhattan.

Authorities said he also engaged in illegal trading in 2019 before acquiring Navigant Consulting Inc. Through the consulting and advisory firm Guidehouse. The documents said he took advantage of his work as a consultant and lobbyist to extract illegal profits.

His attorney, Andrew Goldstein, said in a statement: “Buying Congressman is innocent. His stock trades were legitimate. He looks forward to being acquitted quickly.”

US Attorney Damian Williams said at a press conference that the cases, as well as several other recently announced crackdowns on insider trading, are a follow-up to his pledge to be “relentless in rooting out crime in our financial markets.”

Grewal, director of law enforcement at the SEC: “We have zero, zero tolerance for fraud in our markets.”

“When insiders like Buyer — an attorney, former attorney general, and retired congressman — divert their access to material non-public information, allegedly in this case, they are not only violating federal securities laws, but also undermining public confidence in the fairness of our markets,” Grewal said. “.

In a second lawsuit, three executives of Silicon Valley technology companies are accused of trading inside information about company mergers that one of them learned from their employer.

The indictment accused Amit Bhardwaj, 49, of San Ramon, California, who was the chief information security officer of Lumentum Holdings Inc. , using secrets to trade illegally and then give the information to his criminal partners, including four friends. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Bhardwaj and his friends made more than $5.2 million in illicit profits through trading ahead of two corporate takeover announcements.

Bhardwaj’s lawyer did not immediately respond to letters seeking comment.

In a third case, Seth Markin, of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania – a man who was training to be an FBI agent – allegedly stole inside information from his girlfriend who was working at a large law firm in Washington, DC. According to court documents, he and his friend made more than $1.4 million in illicit profits after learning that Merck & Co. You will get Pandion Therapeutics. It was not clear who would represent Markin in court.

In a fourth indictment, a New York-based investment banker was accused of sharing secrets about potential mergers with another person, on the grounds that the couple would share illegal profits of about $280,000.

Authorities said seven of the nine defendants were arrested on Monday, while two had previously been arrested.