By Jody Godoy
A former Goldman Sachs banker leaked details of potential corporate mergers to a friend who traded on the information, a prosecutor told a New York jury during opening arguments of a trial on Monday.
Former Goldman Sachs Vice President Brijesh Goel faces securities fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges for allegedly tipping his friend Akshay Niranjan to deals the bank was considering funding in 2017 and 2018.
Prosecutors say Goel gleaned the information on at least six occasions about potential transactions – including Japanese chemical manufacturer Kuraray’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Calgon Carbon Corp – from internal Goldman emails, and then tipped Niranjan over games of squash.
Goel’s attorney Adam Ford said his client was framed, and that Niranjan fabricated a story to cover his own trading.
A Goldman Sachs spokesperson has called Goel’s alleged conduct “egregious” and said the bank is cooperating with authorities.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Thomas said that after being contacted by investigators, Goel met with Niranjan in the stairwell of an apartment building to delete their texts.
Niranjan, who is expected to testify as part of a nonprosecution agreement, allegedly traded on the information using his brother’s account and agreed to split around $280,000 in profits with Goel.
Goel worked at private equity firm Apollo Global Management at the time he was charged. A spokesperson for Apollo said Goel was placed on indefinite leave.
The case was one of several U.S. Attorney Damien Williams announced last summer as part of an insider trading crackdown.
In another case, former U.S. Congressman Stephen Buyer was convicted in March of trading on inside information he learned in 2018 as a consultant to T-Mobile US Inc ahead of its $23 billion merger with Sprint.
The case is U.S. v. Goel, No. 22-00396, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.
(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; editing by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Ed Tobin)