Insider-Trading Witness Gets $10 Million Bail, N.Y. Hotel Room

(Bloomberg) -- A Swiss trader who says he raked in $70 million by using secret information from bankers was ordered freed from a New York jail on $10 million bond, after he was the star witness in a trial that shed light on a global insider-trading network.

Marc Demane Debih was ordered released Tuesday to a Manhattan hotel for a week while U.S. authorities consider whether to approve an apartment where he’ll be confined, wearing a GPS ankle bracelet, a court filing shows. He’ll be joined by his wife and children, on U.S. visas from Serbia, according to the document.

Demane Debih has admitted he was part of an international web of inside traders that generated tens of millions of dollars on illegal tips about drug companies. He was arrested in Serbia in 2018, then secretly held in U.S. custody before pleading guilty to 38 criminal counts in a hearing that was closed to the public.

The trader agreed to cooperate with U.S. investigators in hopes of leniency when he’s sentenced. He testified at the trial of Telemaque Lavidas, who was convicted Jan. 15 of passing along company secrets he got from his father, a former director at Boston-based Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc.

During the trial, Demane Debih explained how the network got and shared illegal tips, including paying off corrupt investment bankers. He also stole secrets from a former girlfriend who was a banker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Demane Debih was ordered to continue cooperating with prosecutors while under home confinement and to take steps to transfer to the government $49 million that he’s agreed to forfeit. He will be allowed out for religious services, doctor visits, court appearances, meetings with his lawyers and four hours a week for shopping and errands.

Read More

• Swiss Trader Spills Secrets of Global Insider Network
• Goldman’s Unwelcome Streak: A String of Insider Trading Charges
• Goldman Warns of Reputation Hit After Insider-Trading Arrest
• Global Insider-Trading Probe Lands Conviction of U.S. Leaker

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Steve Stroth

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