Ex-Goldman Sachs Banker Bryan Cohen Pleads Guilty in Insider Case
Ex-Goldman Sachs Banker Bryan Cohen Pleads Guilty in Insider Case
(Bloomberg) -- A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker ensnared in a global insider-trading ring pleaded guilty in New York to conspiracy, admitting he stole confidential information from the bank and passed it to a trader in Switzerland.
Bryan Cohen’s guilty plea on Tuesday came as another alleged participant in the ring, Telemaque Lavidas, stands trial in the same Manhattan courthouse. Cohen, 33, was arrested in October and accused of passing tips about pending mergers using burner phones and speaking in code. He was scheduled to go on trial on Feb. 4.
Cohen admitted during a hearing Tuesday that he’d agreed in 2015 to provide non-public information in exchange for cash. In October 2017, he tipped off a trader that Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. had been approached by another company for a takeover, Cohen told U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman.
“I did so in return for money,” said Cohen, who was terminated by Goldman after his arrest last year. “I will regret forever my actions, and the irreversible implications on my family, my friends, the investment bank I worked at for nearly 10 years, and my colleagues.”
Tips for Cash
Prosecutors said Cohen, a vice president, leaked secrets for almost three years. Tips involving things like impending deals and companies including Syngenta AG led to $2.6 million in illicit gains, according to a separate complaint by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Mr. Cohen has accepted responsibility for his conduct and will thereby avoid a trial,” his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said in a statement. The lawyer said he will seek to persuade a judge that, “despite his criminal conduct, Mr. Cohen is a fundamentally decent young man who should be sentenced in a relatively lenient fashion.”
Four others have also been charged in connection with the insider-trading ring: Greek businessman Georgios Nikas; Joseph El-Khouri, a securities trader and avid poker player who lives in London and Monaco; investment banker Benjamin Taylor, who worked at Moelis & Co.; and Darina Windsor, formerly an investment banker at Centerview Partners LLC.
Marc Demane-Debih, a Swiss trader who was arrested last year in Serbia and extradited to the U.S., pleaded guilty and is cooperating with prosecutors. El-Khouri was arrested in London shortly after Cohen and Lavidas were detained and is fighting extradition to New York.
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Cohen, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, shared inside information with the trader who in turn passed it on to Nikas, according to the U.S. Nikas, who owns the restaurant chain GRK Fresh, is believed to be in Greece.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Cohen faces 30 to 37 months in prison, according to his plea agreement. Cohen has agreed to forfeit $260,000.
Cohen began his career at Goldman in the London office before being transferred to New York in 2017. The insider tips were shared between April 2015 and November 2017, according to the government.
Court filings detailed Cohen’s tips. For instance, shortly after he moved to New York, Buffalo Wild Wings contacted Goldman to help after it was approached by Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc., the U.S. said. Cohen was made aware of the potential acquisition the same day, Oct. 17, 2017. Nikas purchased 22,000 Buffalo Wild Wings shares between Oct. 20 and Oct. 27 for $2.5 million, selling 9,000 of them by Nov. 1 for an initial profit of $79,074, the U.S. said.
--With assistance from Matt Robinson.
To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net;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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