FDA Employee Cheng Yi Liang Didn't See How His Job Working For The Government Proposed A Conflict Of Interest With His Side Job Insider Trading

Author:
Updated:
Original:

Cheng Yi Liang is a 57 year-old chemist employed by the FDA. One thing he picked up on over the years? That there's a lot of cheddar to be made off drug companies. Particularly if one's got information ahead of the masses, which CYL did. And why should his position preclude him from putting money to work in the sector, Liang probably asked himself? It shouldn't which is why he set up seven different brokerage accounts and started making some pretty profitable trades based on his 'edge,' and is also why the SEC and the DOJ are now on his ass.

Cheng Yi Liang, 57, made trades involving 19 companies from as early as July 2006 in advance of at least 27 announcements of FDA decisions on drug applications, the SEC said in a lawsuit filed today at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland. The chemist, who worked for the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, violated his duty as a federal employee not to engage in financial transactions using nonpublic government information and not to use such information for his personal benefit, according to the SEC, which is seeking disgorgement of illegal profits and unspecified fines.

Liang profited from share purchases ahead of 19 positive announcements and on short sales before six negative decisions, the SEC said in its suit. He also avoided losses by selling stock before two other negative announcements, the agency said. Rather than use his own or his wife’s brokerage accounts, Liang directed the trading through seven accounts held by other people, the SEC said. Most of the proceeds were transferred to Liang’s bank account, according to the lawsuit.

SEC Says FDA Chemist Reaped 3.6 Million From Insider Trades [Bloomberg]

Related

News

David Slaine, Government's Undercover "Tip-Mining Machine," Apparently Under The Impression Insider Trading Works On A 3-Strike Basis

Remember David Slaine? For those who need a refresher, he is the former Morgan Stanley managing director and ex-Galleon trader who began working as an FBI informant in 2007 and who was outed for doing so by the Wall Street Journal in January 2010. At the time, we learned a few notable things about Slaine, some of them germane to his role in helping the government go after people trading on material non-public information, others special in their own way, like: 1. He takes french fries, and perhaps all snacks, very seriously. In 1993, Slaine triggered a fist-fight with a colleague on the trading floor after needling him because he wouldn’t share his french fries. Others broke up the fight. 2. He doesn't wait for people to towel off and get dressed before knocking their teeth out. One morning early in 2001, before trading began, Gary Rosenbach, then was the No. 2 executive under Mr. Rajaratnam, and Slaine were in a steam room together after exercising at an Equinox Fitness Club. Mr. Rosenbach was pressuring Mr. Slaine to improve his performance. As Mr. Rosenbach lay on his back on a bench, Mr. Slaine punched him, giving him a black eye and ending their friendship. 3. Humans aren't the only ones often asked "you want a piece of me?" He once smashed a computer keyboard in a fit of rage, says a person familiar with the incident. 4. While working on Wall Street, he eschewed the traditional channels of employee recruitment (Wharton, etc), preferring instead to pick up fresh analysts at the club. While at Morgan Stanley, he met [Craig] Drimal, then a nightclub bouncer at the Vertical Club in Manhattan. The two quickly formed a friendship based on a shared passion for weight lifting and their mutual ability to bench-press 400 pounds...Shortly after arriving at Galleon, Mr. Slaine persuaded Galleon officials to give a position to Mr. Drimal, who then was working as a bouncer at the Roxy nightclub in Manhattan. 5. Being a person with whom he "formed a friendship based on a shared passion for weight lifting and [a] mutual ability to bench-press 400 pounds," possibly the greatest line written about anyone who's ever worked on Wall Street and which which cannot be said enough, means little in the long run if he knows you've been playing it fast and loose with securites laws. In July 2007, the FBI showed up at Mr. Slaine's door on W. 57th Street in Manhattan and confronted him. Mr. Slaine agreed to help the government. At the time, federal prosecutors in Manhattan were trying to make headway on another investigation that eventually led to the charges involving Galleon. They asked Mr. Slaine who he knew that might be participating in insider trading. Mr. Slaine's answer: his friend Mr. Drimal, according to people familiar with the matter. In September 2007, Mr. Slaine—identified in the complaint as CS-1—tried out his body wire for the first time, meeting Mr. Drimal in New York. During the meeting, Mr. Drimal gave Mr. Slaine a piece of paper with four stock symbols, according to the complaint. He told Mr. Slaine the four companies were all acquisition targets. At the meeting's end, Mr. Drimal told Mr. Slaine to destroy the list. He warned him to "be careful" in trading the securities because no news of the takeovers had surfaced publicly...After the meeting, Mr. Slaine went to a nearby hotel where an FBI agent was waiting, says a person familiar with the matter. The pair went to a room where Mr. Slaine removed the wire. Anyway, Bloomberg recently checked in to see what Slaine's been up to these last couple years and other than his "multi-year experience" with the FBI being "tremendously traumatic," he seems to be doing pretty well.