Overview
- The Justice Department, which unsealed two complaints Wednesday, accused 30 people of running a years-long scheme built on confidential merger-and-acquisition tips.
- The filings say the group tapped nonpublic details from roughly 30 deals and turned those leaks into tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits.
- The FBI described an international network reaching across U.S. states as well as Israel and Russia, and said agents made arrests with initial court appearances underway.
- Charging documents identify attorneys Nicolo Nourafchan and Robert Yadgarov as alleged organizers who recruited other insiders and paid cash kickbacks for tips.
- Investigators detail burner phones, encrypted apps, coded talk, shell accounts, and offshore channels in places like Panama and Switzerland, and they say the stolen information came from six large firms based in New York, California, Illinois, and Massachusetts.