Several Indian-origin persons charged for insider trading

SEVERAL Indian-origin persons have been charged in the US with insider trading in two separate alleged schemes in which they made more than five million dollars in illegal profits.

Amit Bhardwaj, 49, the former chief information security officer of Lumentum Holdings and his friends Dhirenkumar Patel, 50, Srinivasa Kakkera, 47, Abbas Saeedi, 47, and Ramesh Chitor, 45, have been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday (26).

The SEC alleges that these persons, all residing in California, traded ahead of two corporate acquisition announcements by Lumentum and generated more than $5.2 million in illicit profits.

In another action, the SEC alleges insider trading by investment banker Brijesh Goel, 37 and his friend Akshay Niranjan, 33, both of New York, who was a foreign exchange trader at a large financial institution.

The SEC alleges that the two men, close friends from business school, made more than $275,000 from illegally trading ahead of four acquisition announcements in 2017 that Goel learned about through his employment.

The complaint further alleges Niranjan purchased call options on the target companies and later wired Goel $85,000 for Goel's share of the proceeds.

The SEC's enforcement actions were filed in federal district court in Manhattan, and in each case, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York on Monday announced parallel criminal charges.

'If everyday investors think that the market is rigged at their expense in favour of insiders who abuse their positions, they are not going to invest their hard-earned money in the markets,' said Gurbir S Grewal, Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division.

‘But as today's actions show, we stand ready to leverage all of our expertise and tools to root out misconduct and to hold bad actors accountable no matter the industry or profession. That's what's required to restore investor trust and confidence.'