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Former Goldman Vice President Pleads Guilty To Insider Trading

19-12-2018 < Blacklisted News 40 603 words
 

A former Goldman Sachs Vice President pleaded guilty on Wednesday to insider trading, after prosecutors alleged that he made over $130,000 in illegal profits.



From 2015 through 2017, Woojae "Steve" Jung used his access to material non-public information on Goldman clients' potential parties to mergers, acquisitions and corproate restructurings to trade through an account established in the name of an associate living in South Korea.


Jung, a South Korean citizen who joined the Investment Bank in July 2012 after graduating from Wharton business school, opened a trading account with Goldman when he joined the firm per company policies. The next month, an account was opened for Jung's friend - described as a student residing in Los Angeles. Investigators traced the IP addresses used to make the trades to Jung's Manhattan residence and computers in Korea.


In 2015, Jung was promoted to Vice President and moved from New York to Goldman's San Francisco offices. He was put on leave following his indictment and left the firm in June, according to FINRA records. Jung was hit with seven counts; one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and six counts of securities fraud.


In one case, Jung made $57,266 on SanDisk shares and options surrounding a rumor that Western Digital might acquire the chipmaker. Jung also netted approximately $64,000 on the October 2015 acquisition of KLA-Tencor by Lam Research.


Not all of Jung's insider trading was spectacularly profitable; in March 2015 Jung bought 400 shares of Foresight Energy right before Murray Energy Corporation took a majority stake, resulting in a profit of just $362.00.


Magistrate Judge Deborah Freeman of the Southern District of New York recommended that Judge Lewis Kaplan accept Jung's guilty plea. The former banker faces 18 to 24 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.


Read the indictment against Jung here.


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