NEW YORK: Two men have been arrested in connection with a purported insider trading scheme based on information stolen from prominent US law firms, resulting in at least $32 million of illicit profits, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The purported scheme involved trading based on information stolen from law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, according to the US Attorney's Office in New Jersey.
Authorities described a "decades-long scheme" that also involved trading based on information stolen from Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Prosecutors identified the defendants as Garrett Bauer and Matthew Kluger, and said further details would be announced at a news conference later in the day in Newark.
US Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey, and officials from the FBI and the US Securities and Exchange Commission were expected to attend.
No other information was immediately available, including whether the defendants had retained lawyers.
A Cravath spokeswoman had no immediate comment. Calls to the Justice Department, the FBI and the other law firms were not immediately returned.
The news comes as the US Justice Department cracks down on insider trading.
Authorities have since October 2009 made dozens of arrests related to allegations of insider trading involving hedge funds and so-called expert networks that link experts in various industry sectors with money managers.
One-time billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the hedge fund firm Galleon Group, is on trial in Manhattan in Wall Street's biggest insider trading case in two decades.
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