Law Firm Employee Misjudged The Coast Being Clear Re: Relaunching His Insider Trading Career

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In April 2011, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati employee Matthew Kluger was charged with insider trading with a couple of his buddies, in a scheme that went back some 17-odd years. This spooked a fellow WSG&R employee named Dimitry Braverman, because unbeknownst to the Feds, he was running a little insider trading campaign of his own, separate from Kluger's. Despite the fact that he probably worried about having gaps in his résumé (2009-2011 Insider Trading Professional, 2011-, ???), Braverman decided to pump the brakes on the material non-public information stuff for a while, the Kluger business likely being a bit too close for comfort. About a year later, though, not too long after Kluger was handed the longest insider trading sentence in U.S. history, Braverman got that familiar itch again, an itch more powerful than any fears of getting caught, which he presumably dismissed with a "Fuck it. I'm getting back in the game."

An information technology engineer at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati pleaded guilty on Thursday to insider trading based on information he learned while working at the prominent Silicon Valley law firm.

Dimitry Braverman, 41, pleaded guilty in New York federal court to one count of securities fraud, two years after another Wilson Sonsini employee, attorney Matthew Kluger, received the longest insider trading prison sentence in history in a separate case in New Jersey. "I'm very sorry for my actions, and I'm ready to forfeit my profits," Braverman told U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmeyer. Prosecutors accused Braverman of making nearly $300,000 from 2010 to 2013 by illegally trading in stocks and options of eight companies involved in deals for which Wilson Sonsini was providing legal counsel. In April 2011, Kluger was charged with a separate insider trading scheme, prompting Braverman to put his fraud on hold temporarily, prosecutors said. Following Kluger's arrest, Wilson Sonsini's general counsel emailed employees to remind them of the firm's policies on insider trading, according to court documents.

But prosecutors said Braverman started back up again in 2012, just months after Kluger was sentenced to a record 12 years in prison. Braverman had access to information about pending transactions through his job working on software for the firm's finance operations, prosecutors said. The companies in which he traded included Drugstore.com Inc, Seagate Technology Plc and Dealertrack Technologies Inc, authorities said.

Will his sentence reflect his apparent willingness to forfeit his profits without delay? Stay tuned.*

Wilson Sonsini employee pleads guilty to insider trading in N.Y. [Reuters]

Related: Accused Insider Traders Argue Over How Much Effort They’ll Exert To Destroy Evidence Like Two Guys Debating Whether It’s Worth Paying the Extra $5 For Getting The Pizza Delivered Rather Than Picking It Up Down The Block; Convicted Insider Trader Matthew Kluger “Shocked” To Find Out He Couldn’t Trust The Guys With Whom He Was Committing Federal Crimes

*Probably not, usually the authorities are pretty good at making you forfeit your profits, and don't give a fuck if you're "ready" to return them.

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