WASHINGTON — Former Indiana Republican Rep. Stephen Baier has been charged with insider trading, utilizing accounts owned by his spouse and longtime mistress to cover sure transactions, the Securities and Exchange Commission introduced Monday.
Baier, who left Congress in 2011, is accused of trading on private info he obtained as a marketing consultant after leaving workplace.
According to a civil grievance filed in Manhattan federal courtroom, the client purchased greater than $1.5 million in inventory in two separate firms, Sprint and Navigant Consulting, primarily based on insider info over a two-year interval.
He offered Sprint shares in 2018 after the merger with T-Mobile for a revenue of not less than $107,000, in accordance with the SEC. He offered Navigant shares in 2019 after information broke that InformationHouse LLP would purchase Navigant.
The purchaser used varied accounts, together with the brokerage account of his spouse, Joni Byer, to buy the shares. Joni Baier just isn’t accused of any authorized wrongdoing, however is known as within the indictment as a result of she technically benefited from income made in her funding account.
Buyer unfold the inventory purchases throughout 7 totally different accounts, together with two separate IRAs held by him alone, an funding account by his spouse Joni Bayer; A joint account owned by the couple; A joint account is shared by the client with his son; A joint account is shared by the client with his cousin and a seventh account owned by a girl recognized solely as «Friend-1».
According to the SEC grievance, the client started a romantic relationship with an unidentified girl in 2006 In 2018, the client used the lady’s IRA account to buy $12,000 value of inventory in Sprint. A yr later, he once more used his account to purchase $22,000 of inventory in Navigant, shortly earlier than each firms have been acquired by purchaser consulting purchasers.
«When insiders like Buyer — an lawyer, a former prosecutor and a retired congressman — monetize their entry to materials, nonpublic info just like the allegations on this case, they not solely violate federal securities legal guidelines, but additionally undermine public belief and confidence in our markets. justification,” SEC Enforcement Division Director Gurbir S. Grewal stated in an SEC press launch.
A lawyer for the client couldn’t be instantly recognized for remark.
Bayer served in Congress from 1993–2011, the place he represented Indiana’s 4th Congressional District, previously its fifth.