U.S. Prosecutors Charge 30 in M&A Insider Trading Scheme

U.S. federal prosecutors announced on May 6 that they had charged 30 individuals with participating in insider trading related to corporate mergers and acquisitions, according to Xinhua News Agency. The defendants allegedly exploited confidential M&A information held by Wall Street law firms to generate tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits.

Charged Scheme and Scope

The prosecution targets a coordinated insider trading operation centered on misuse of M&A intelligence controlled by major law firms. The scheme generated estimated profits in the tens of millions of dollars range, according to the announcement.

Named M&A Transactions

The U.S. federal prosecutors identified five major M&A transactions as part of the alleged insider trading scheme:

• Cigna Corporation's $54 billion acquisition of Express Scripts
• Anadarko Petroleum Corporation's $55 billion acquisition of Western Oil
• Johnson & Johnson's $30 billion acquisition of Swiss biotech company Actelion
• Tim Hortons' $11 billion acquisition of U.S.-based Burger King
• Amazon's 2022 attempted acquisition of a U.S. robotics company, which ultimately failed