- Former Rep. Stephen Buyer has been charged with insider trading.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission says he traded on non-public information.
- He used accounts owned by his wife and long-term mistress to conceal some of the transactions.
Former Indiana Republican Rep. Stephen Buyer has been charged with insider trading, with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing Monday that he used accounts owned by his wife and long-term mistress to conceal some of the transactions.
Buyer, who resigned from Congress in 2011, is accused of trading on non-public information he obtained as a consultant after leaving office.
Buyer purchased more than $1.5 million in stock in two separate companies, Sprint and Navigant Consulting, based on insider information, according to the civil complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
According to the SEC, he sold Sprint shares in 2018 after the merger with T-Mobile was revealed, for a profit of at least $107,000. He sold his Navigant shares in 2019 after learning that the company would be acquired by Guidehouse LLP.
Buyer purchased the shares using several different accounts, including his wife Joni Buyer’s brokerage account. Joni Buyer is not charged with any legal wrongdoing, but she is named in the charges because she benefited from the illegal gains in her investment account.
Buyer allegedly divided his stock purchases among seven accounts, including two separate IRAs owned by him alone, an investment account owned by his wife Joni Buyer, a joint account owned by the couple, a joint account Buyer shared with his son, a joint account Buyer shared with his cousin, and a seventh account owned by a woman identified only as “Friend-1.”
Buyer began a romantic relationship with the unidentified woman in 2006, according to the SEC complaint. Buyer used the woman’s IRA account to purchase more than $12,000 in Sprint stock in 2018. He allegedly used her account again a year later to purchase $22,000 in Navigant stock, shortly before both companies were acquired by Buyer’s consulting clients.
“When insiders like Buyer – an attorney, a former prosecutor, and a retired Congressman – monetize their access to material, nonpublic information, as alleged in this case, they not only violate the federal securities laws, but also undermine public trust and confidence in the fairness of our markets,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC Enforcement Division, in a press release.
Buyer’s lawyer could not be reached for comment right away.
Buyer was a member of Congress from 1993 to 2011, representing Indiana’s 4th congressional district, which was previously numbered as the 5th.
[embedpost slug=”kamala-harris-to-visit-indiana-as-lawmakers-set-to-debate-over-abortion-ban-bill/”]
