SEC Charges Investment Banker with Insider Trading

The SEC charged an investment banker with fraud for "serial" trading based on confidential, non-public information.

In a Complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC alleged that Woojae "Steve" Jung ("defendant") illegally made profitable trades in advance of multiple significant corporate transactions. The SEC alleged that the defendant traded on information he learned about as an associate and then as vice president at an investment bank. In addition, the SEC claimed that the defendant executed the trades in the electronic brokerage account of a friend based in South Korea in order to avoid detection of the illicit activity by the investment bank. The SEC was able to link much of the brokerage account activity to the defendant's IP addresses. The defendant was also linked to various money transfers into and out of his friend's brokerage account.

According to the Complaint, the defendant realized over $140,000 in profits through his insider trading scheme. His friend was named as a relief defendant in the action.