Ex-Merrill Lynch Broker Ordered to Pay $1.4 Million in Restitution for Insider-Trading Scheme -- Broker's World
August 25 2015 - 8:17PM
Dow Jones News
By Anna Prior
A former Merrill Lynch broker was ordered to pay $1.4 million in
restitution to the brokerage on Tuesday for his role in an
insider-trading scheme involving a secret offshore brokerage
account used to make trades based on inside information about the
chip maker Qualcomm Inc.
Gary Yin, of San Diego, was also sentenced to time served and
three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $5,000
fine, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern
District of California.
Mr. Yin pleaded guilty in September 2013, admitting to
obstructing justice and laundering money for his client, a former
executive at Qualcomm, according to federal prosecutors.
Mr. Yin's client, Jing Wang, also pleaded guilty last year to
charges of insider trading and money laundering. Mr. Wang was
sentenced in June to 18 months in prison and fined $500,000,
according to court documents.
Attorneys for Messrs. Yin and Wang didn't respond to requests
for comment.
According to the plea agreement, Mr. Yin, among other things,
helped conceal evidence that Mr. Wang had engaged in insider
trading by setting up a shell company in the British Virgin
Islands, opening a brokerage account in the name of the shell
company, and laundering the illegal insider-trading profits by
moving them into the British Virgin Islands account.
Trades were then made on inside information about Qualcomm's
dividend, stock buybacks, earnings guidance and the acquisition of
Atheros Communications, according to the Securities and Exchange
Commission, which also charged Messrs. Yin and Wang with insider
trading back in 2013.
All together, the trades yielded $244,000 for Mr. Wang and
$27,000 for Mr. Yin, the SEC said.
A representative for Qualcomm said the company had no
comment.
A spokesman for Merrill Lynch noted that the firm terminated Mr.
Yin in 2013 and said it cooperated fully with the U.S. attorney's
office on this matter.
Write to Anna Prior at anna.prior@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 25, 2015 20:02 ET (00:02 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024