A former trader pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring with a former UBS AG investment manager to conduct insider trading in six UBS healthcare client acquisitions by using coded email messages. The former trader, Alexei Koval, 36, admitted before US District Judge Paul Crotty in New York that he and his friend Igor Poteroba committed securities fraud in the deals between 2005 and February 2009. Poteroba pleaded guilty to the same charges in the same court on December 22.
When federal prosecutors in New York announced the charges in March, UBS said it was co-operating with the investigation. "What I did was based on tips from a co-conspirator," Koval told the judge, without mentioning Poteroba by name. "I purchased securities and traded them for profit." The judge ordered Koval, a citizen of Russia who has been living in Chicago, to report to jail on January 12. His sentencing was scheduled for April 12 when he faces 30 months to 37 months imprisonment.