A former trader and portfolio manager with Toronto’s Polar Asset Management Inc. who pled guilty to insider trading last year has now also admitted to participating in a second insider trading scheme involving information obtained from his firm.
The U.S. attorney’s office for New Jersey announced that Sean Wygovsky pled guilty to one count of securities fraud in U.S. district court in connection with an insider trading scheme involving pending merger deals. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 27.
According to the charging information, Wygovsky used information that he acquired at his firm about planned merger transactions involving special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to tip off a friend who worked at a New Jersey-based brokerage firm about the upcoming deals.
When the firm was invited to participate in specific SPAC acquisitions, it placed those companies on an internal restricted list and warned employees not to trade in those SPACs. Yet, it’s alleged that Wygovsky repeatedly tipped off his friend and broker, Christopher Matthaei, who then traded on that inside information, generating US$3.4 million in illicit profits.
Source: Ex-trader admits to second insider trading scheme | Investment Executive
