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A former Goldman Sachs and Blackstone Group employee has been charged with insider trading after allegedly tipping off close friends about a series of large deals, including a $2.2bn investment by the private-equity group into insurer AIG.
In an indictment unsealed on Thursday, federal prosecutors said 26-year-old New Yorker Anthony Viggiano had passed on material non-public information to co-defendant Stephen Forlano.
He also allegedly tipped off Christopher Salamone, who grew up on the same block as Viggiano, and agreed to “split the profits from their illegal trading, which yielded total illegal profits of over approximately $300,000”, according to court filings.
Forlano did not end up trading on the AIG information, but made at least $100,000 from trading on other tips, prosecutors alleged. Salamone pleaded guilty last week and is co-operating with the government.
Viggiano worked as an analyst for Blackstone from April until October 2021, and joined Goldman as an associate in its asset management department around February 2022 through May 2023.
Viggiano had “betrayed the trust of his employers by tipping his friends with material non-public information, undermining the integrity of our financial markets in the process”, said Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York “No matter how evasive insider traders’ conduct, or the lengths gone to hide their offences, this office will track down and prosecute those who attempt to cheat the system.”
In a statement, Blackstone said: “This individual was a junior analyst in a non-investment, finance function who was briefly employed for less than seven months and left two years ago. It added: “We make crystal clear to every employee through our extensive compliance and training procedures that we have absolutely zero tolerance for the behaviour alleged, and we are fully co-operating with the authorities.”
“The allegations in the indictment are egregious,” said Goldman Sachs in a statement. “The firm has zero tolerance for this kind of behavior, which violates our standard of conduct and our business principles. We continue to fully co-operate with the government on this matter.”
A lawyer for Viggiano said he would “vigorously defend” his client against the charges, while a lawyer for Forlano said his client “denies trading on insider information and will vigorously contest these allegations in the appropriate forum — court.”
A lawyer for Salamone declined to comment.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also sued Viggiano, Forlano, Salamone, and a fourth individual, Nathan Bleckley, for allegedly trading on unlawfully disclosed information.
The agency’s complaint details how Viggiano allegedly tipped Forlano in 2021 about the looming AIG deal, in which the insurer sold a 9.9 per cent stake in its life and retirement business to Blackstone for $2.2bn and announced a broader investment management partnership with the private equity firm. AIG’s shares rose by more than 3.5 per cent following the public announcement of the deal.
Forlano in turn shared the information with Bleckley in the SEC’s case, the complaint alleged, who messaged to say he had not bought in “Bc my funds are low.” A lawyer for Bleckley said his client was “a dedicated member of the armed forces” who “places a high priority on doing what’s right”.
When Forlano replied that “Rigatoni” — a nickname for Viggiano — “literally works for” Blackstone, Bleckley responded “F[**]k u should’ve told me f[**]k the feds.” Forlano then allegedly sent a text message saying: “next one i got you’ll be the first to know”, according to the court documents.
In the criminal indictment, prosecutors alleged that Viggiano and Forlano had attempted to avoid detection by using encrypted messaging applications such as Signal and the XBox 360 communication platform. Forlano also used the disappearing messages feature on Instagram, they said.
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