Ex-Federal Reserve Official Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading


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<p>A former official for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond pled guilty last week to<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://headlineusa.com/tag/insider-trading&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">insider trading</a>&nbsp;after he was caught misappropriating confidential information to execute trades.</p>
<p>The defendant, Robert Brian Thompson, 43, of Mosley, worked as a bank examiner and senior manager with supervisory duties for the<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://headlineusa.com/tag/federal-reserve&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Reserve</a>&mdash;giving him access to confidential information about financial institutions under the Fed&rsquo;s supervision, including confidential supervisory information.</p>
<p>According to the<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://headlineusa.com/tag/justice-department&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Justice Department</a>, Thompson used confidential information from his workplace to execute 69 trades in seven different publicly traded financial institutions for a total of $771,678 from October 2020 through February 2024.</p>
<p>To conceal the scheme, Thompson lied on his &ldquo;Form D&rdquo;&mdash;which, among other things, requires employees to disclose if they have any assets, including any equity interest in any banks that are members of the Federal Reserve system.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Thompson falsely represented on the FRBR&rsquo;s Form D that he had no assets,&rdquo; the DOJ said last Tuesday in a<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-senior-manager-federal-reserve-bank-richmond-pleads-guilty-insider-trading-and-making&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>.</p>
<p>Thompson pled guilty to one count of insider trading and one count of making false statements. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the insider trading count&mdash;as well as five years in prison on the false statements count.</p>
<p>The<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://headlineusa.com/tag/securities-and-exchange-commission&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Securities and Exchange Commission</a>&nbsp;also filed a complaint against Thompson earlier this month, alleging that he bought $678,000 worth of a bank&rsquo;s stock hours before the bank was scheduled to make a positive earnings announcement. Thompson&rsquo;s insider trading netted him roughly $79,346 in ill-gotten profits, according to the SEC.</p>
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<p>&ldquo;The SEC&rsquo;s complaint further alleges that, in January 2024, Thompson learned that a different bank in his supervisory portfolio would be disclosing unexpected loan losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars as part of an upcoming earnings announcement,&rdquo; the SEC said earlier this month in a<a href="https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26172&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>&nbsp;</span>press release</a>.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Thompson allegedly leveraged that material nonpublic information to buy thousands of options on the bank&rsquo;s stock two days before the scheduled announcement, which led to $505,527 of ill-gotten profits.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Thompson has entered a settlement with the SEC in that case, which requires him to disgorge his ill-gotten gains. The settlement is subject to the approval of a judge.</p>
<p><i><span>Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at&nbsp;</span></i><a href="https://x.com/jd_cashless&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><span>x.com/jd_cashless</span></i></a><i><span>.</span></i></p>
<p><i><span>Originally Published on <a href="https://headlineusa.com/ex-federal-reserve-official-pleads-guilty-to-insider-trading/&quot; rel="noreferrer">Headline USA</a>.</span></i></p>
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