NEW YORK: An Indian American partner in a global consulting firm has been arrested and charged in an alleged insider trading scheme that netted him about $450,000, according to federal officials. "Puneet Dikshit has been charged with serious felonies for his alleged conduct" of exploiting insider information about a pending acquisition, New York federal prosecutor Damian Williams said.
He was produced before Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin Fox, who set a bail of $1 million. According to a LinkedIn profile, he worked for McKinsey & Company, one of the largest global consulting firms. Court papers said that Dikshit's company had been hired by Goldman Sachs to advise it on the acquisition of GreenSky, a company traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange, and that he had used insider information to trade options on that company's stocks.
After making some small trades, he bought call options – which are essentially bets on the stock prices going up – in accounts in his and his spouse's name for about $24,647 about two days before the Goldman Sach's announcement on Sept. 15 that it was acquiring GreenSky in a $2.24 billion deal, according to court papers.
After the announcement when the stock prices shot up, he sold the call options at a profit of 1,829 per cent, netting about $450,000, court papers said. "Dikshit now faces significant federal charges, which should serve as a warning to others considering similar conduct," said Michael J Driscoll, the assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Dikshit, 40, is facing two separate charges, each of which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. Besides the criminal case filed by the prosecutor, he is facing a civil case launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking monetary penalties.
