September 16, 2014

The SEC charged Dimitry Braverman, a senior information technology professional at the international law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, with insider trading ahead of several mergers and acquisitions involving firm clients being advised on the deals.  The SEC alleged Braverman used his access to nonpublic information in the firm’s client-related databases and garnered more than $300,000 in illicit profits by trading in advance of merger announcements.  Braverman began by insider trading in accounts in his own name, but shifted course when a lawyer at his firm was charged by the SEC and criminal authorities in an entirely separate insider trading scheme.  After immediately liquidating the remaining securities that he had purchased on the basis of nonpublic information, Braverman waited about 18 months and then continued his insider trading in a brokerage account held in the name of a relative living in Russia.  His concealment efforts failed, however, when SEC investigators were able to dissect a suspicious pattern of trades and trace them back to Braverman.  SEC

Tagged in: Insider Trading, Securities Fraud,