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A former Goldman Sachs and Blackstone Group employee has been charged with insider trading for allegedly tipping off close friends about a series of large transactions, including the private equity group’s $2.2 billion investment in insurance company AIG.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, federal prosecutors said Anthony Viggiano, 26, of New York, passed important illegal information to co-defendant Stephen Forlano. Public information.
He also allegedly tipped off Christopher Salamone, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Viggiano, and agreed to “share the profits from the illegal transactions, which totaled more than approximately 30 million million,” court documents show.
Prosecutors said Frano did not ultimately trade on the AIG information, but made at least $100,000 by trading on other tips. Salamon pleaded guilty last week and is cooperating with the government.
Viggiano served as a Blackstone analyst from April to October 2021, and joined Goldman Sachs from February 2022 to May 2023 as an associate in the asset management department.
Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Viggiano “betrayed the trust of his employer and undermined the integrity of our financial markets by disclosing material, nonpublic information to a friend.” Escape from the actions of insider traders, or go to great lengths to conceal their crimes, the office will track down and prosecute those who try to cheat the system. “
Blackstone said in a statement: “This individual was a junior analyst in the non-investment financial sector and was briefly employed for less than seven months before leaving two years ago.” It added: “We go through extensive compliance and training procedures Make it clear to every employee that we have zero tolerance for the alleged conduct and that we are cooperating fully with the authorities. “
“The allegations in the indictment are shocking,” Goldman Sachs said in a statement. “The firm has zero tolerance for conduct that violates our standards of conduct and business principles. We will continue to cooperate fully with the government on this matter.” “
A lawyer for Viggiano said he would “vigorously defend” his client against the charges, while a lawyer for Frano said his client “denies trading on inside information and will seek legal action in the appropriate manner.” Forum – these allegations are strongly rebutted in court.”
Salamon’s attorney declined to comment.
The SEC also charged Viggiano, Forlano, Salamone and a fourth individual, Nathan Bleckley, with trading on illegally disclosed information.
The agency’s complaint details how Viggiano allegedly tipped Forlano in 2021 about the impending AIG deal, which saw the insurance company sell a 9.9% stake in its life insurance and retirement business to Blackstone for $2.2 billion, announcing a deal with the company. Private equity firms form broader investment management partnerships. After the transaction was publicly announced, AIG’s stock price rose more than 3.5%.
Frano later shared the information with Blackley in the SEC case, and Blackley texted that he didn’t buy the stock “because I didn’t have enough funds,” the indictment said. A lawyer for Blakeley said his client was “a committed member of the armed forces” who “highly values doing the right thing”.
When Frano responded that “Rigatoni” (Vigiano’s nickname) “does work for Blackstone,” Blakely responded “F(**)ku should tell me to f*ck the FBI.” Court documents It shows that Forano then sent a text message that read: “You will be the first to know about the next text message I receive.”
In the criminal complaint, prosecutors allege that Viggiano and Forlano attempted to evade detection by using encrypted messaging applications such as Signal and the Xbox 360 messaging platform. Forlano also used the disappearing message feature on Instagram, they said.
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