On Thursday, federal prosecutors in New York charged four people, including a UBS AG investment banker, a former co-worker, a family friend and a former classmate, criminally in an insider trading case that allegedly produced more than $7 million in profits.
According to the WSJ, prosecutors announced charges against the following individuals:
- Nicos Achillea Stephanou of London, formerly with UBS. Stephanou has been charged with conspiracy and two counts of securities fraud;
- Joseph Contorinis, a former portfolio manager for a hedge fund in Jefferies Group Inc.’s asset-management unit and former co-worker of Mr. Stephanou;
- Michael Koulouroudis, a close family friend of Mr. Stephanou; and
- George Paparrizos, a former classmate of Stephanou’s at the University of California-Berkeley.
According to a separate complaint filed by the SEC naming additional defendants, Stephanou had access to material nonpublic information concerning the acquisition of companies such as Albertson’s Inc. and Elk Corp. prior to its public release because the companies retained UBS as their financial advisor. In the Albertson’s acquisition, Stephanou allegedly tipped Paparrizos, Koulouroudis and Contorinis with material nonpublic information about the ABS acquisition, all of whom traded based on that information. The SEC alleges that through their trading in ABS securities, the defendants made total profits and avoided losses of approximately $7.7 million.
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[...] previously discussed here, federal prosecutors in New York initially charged four people, including Contorinis, criminally in [...]