A former JPMorgan Chase analyst and two friends were charged on Tuesday in an alleged insider trading scheme that netted more than $670,000 in illicit profits, the Department of Justice said.
Ashish Aggarwal, a 27-year-old UC Berkeley graduate, worked as a Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) analyst at JPMorgan Securities in San Francisco from June 2011 until June 2013.
In 2012 and 2013, Aggarwal allegedly obtained material nonpublic information about two separate acquisitions in the technology sector that his team was working on and shared that information with his "close friend" Shahriyar Bolandian.
Based on that information, Bolandian, 26, allegedly placed trades on his own account and trading accounts belonging to his sister and father, netting a $453,000 profit, according to the SEC complaint.
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Bolandian also shared the material information with a friend and colleague, 28-year-old Kevan Sadigh, who also traded on the information making around $219,000.
The deals the trades involved were Integrated Device Technology's planned acquisition of PLX Technology in 2012 and salesforce.com's acquisition of ExactTarget in 2013.
According to the DOJ, each defendant faces one count of conspiracy to commit securities and tender offer fraud, 13 substantive counts of securities fraud, 13 substantive counts of tender offer fraud and three substantive counts of wire fraud. Bolandian also faces one count of money laundering.
All three also face separate civil charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Aggarwal's attorney Grant Fondo said: "Mr. Aggarwal denies the charges against him" and that he "intends to vigorously defend himself against these allegations."
JPMorgan has been cooperating with the investigation, a person familiar with the investigation said.
JPMorgan declined to comment.
