US: Hedge fund manager charged with insider trading

A Manhattan hedge fund manager was charged on Wednesday with trading on confidential tips about drug approvals, in one of the biggest insider trading cases since a 2014 court ruling made it harder for US prosecutors to pursue them.

US Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan accused Sanjay Valvani of Visium Asset Management of fraudulently making $25 million by gaining advance word about US Food and Drug Administration approvals of generic drug applications.

Prosecutors said the inside information was provided by Gordon Johnston, a consultant who got tips from a friend and former FDA colleague still working at the agency.

Valvani passed some of these tips to Christopher Plaford, then a Visium portfolio manager, who made his own illegal trades, prosecutors said.

“Sadly these are schemes we see time and time again, where lies and use of non-public information profits those conducting the crimes, and everyday investors lose out,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez said in a statement.

Full Content: Reuters

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