Throw em in jail and chop the nuts off.....
Merrill, Goldman Workers Charged in Scheme By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Apr 11, 11:43 AM ET
NEW YORK - A Merrill Lynch analyst, two former Goldman Sachs employees and a printing plant worker conspired in an international insider trading scheme that netted more than $6.7 million, prosecutors alleged Tuesday.
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Prosecutors charged that the conspiracy involved two widespread and highly lucrative trading schemes created by Eugene Plotkin and David Pajcin, both formally of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Also named as defendants in the case were Stanislav Shpigelman, an investment banking analyst in the mergers and acquisitions division of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., and Juan Renteria, who worked at a printing plant where Business Week magazine was produced.
In a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the government said Plotkin and Pajcin and others made at least $6.4 million in illegal gains by learning about pending mergers and acquisitions early from Shpigelman.
It said the insider trading conspiracy took on an international element when Plotkin and Pajcin began providing tips from Shpigelman to people overseas, including at least two people in Europe, and tried to open Swiss bank accounts.
Prosecutors said the scheme developed after Plotkin introduced Pajcin to Shpigelman in November 2004 at a Russian day spa and sauna in lower Manhattan and Shpigelman told them he knew Procter and Gamble Co. was planning to acquire The Gillette Co.
In exchange for information on six different pending mergers or acquisitions, Shpigelman received cash and promises of future payments based on a percentage of profits, the court papers said.
Plotkin and Pajcin bought the securities prior to public announcements of the mergers and then sold immediately afterward, locking in profits, prosecutors said.
At the same time, the pair began gleaning tips about what was about to appear in Business Week's "Inside Wall Street" column by bribing two workers at a printing plant in Hartford, Wis., where the magazine was produced, prosecutors said.
The information enabled them to make at least $340,000 illegally by trading in about 20 different stocks a day before the stocks received favorable mentions in the column, according to the court papers.
Plotkin and Pajcin and other co-conspirators not identified in the court papers also tried to find other sources of inside information by helping others get jobs at investment banks in the hopes they could get insider tips, prosecutors said.
The criminal complaint alleged that Plotkin and Pajcin created a joint fund to hold their illegal gains and began tipping family and friends with the understanding that those receiving tips would kick back some of the money to the pair.
Shpigelman, Plotkin and Renteria were charged with conspiracy to commit insider trading.
According to court papers, Shpigelman holds a bachelor of science degree in business management from Binghamton University while Plotkin has a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Harvard University.
In November, Pajcin was arrested and charged with conspiracy and securities fraud.
He is now cooperating with the government, according to the complaint written by FBI Agent David Makol.
Makol said in the complaint that he believed Shpigelman was well informed about the illegality of trading stocks on inside information because his sister once asked him if a deal he told her about was public information.
"Yes, the offer is public. I would not be telling you, especially via e-mail, unless I wanted to chill with Martha in Connecticut for a little while," Shpigelman allegedly wrote.
Makol said he believed it was a reference to the criminal prosecution of Martha Stewart, the style maven who served five months in prison after she was convicted of lying about a stock sale. |
