By Michael Calia
A former financial analyst for pharmaceutical giant Merck &
Co. Inc. this week pleaded guilty to charges related to insider
trading, authorities said.
Zachary Zwerko, 32 years old, pleaded guilty to one count of
conspiracy to commit securities fraud and three counts of
securities fraud stemming from an insider-trading scheme that ran
from at least 2010 through this past August, according to the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
Authorities didn't say that Mr. Zwerko worked for Merck, but The
Wall Street Journal had previously confirmed with a company
spokeswoman that he had been employed by the pharmaceutical
firm.
Mr. Zwerko's plot focused on using inside information to trade
based on information about various acquisitions. It generated
$57,000 in illegal profit for him and $700,000 in illicit gains for
a co-conspirator, authorities said.
Mr. Zwerko faces a maximum sentence of five years for the
conspiracy county and 20 years for each of the three counts of
securities fraud. He also faces a fine of as much as $5 million, or
twice the gross gain or loss from the offense in his conspiracy
count, authorities said.
The former analyst is scheduled to be sentenced May 15.
Write to Michael Calia at michael.calia@wsj.com
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