Ex-Merrill Lynch Broker Ordered to Pay Restitution for Insider Trading 

Scheme used offshore brokerage account to make trades based on Qualcomm inside information

A former Merrill Lynch broker was ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution to the brokerage on Tuesday for his role in an insider-trading scheme involving a secret offshore brokerage account used to make trades based on inside information about the chip maker Qualcomm Inc.

Gary Yin, of San Diego, was also sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of California.

Mr. Yin pleaded guilty in September 2013, admitting to obstructing justice and laundering money for his client, a former executive at Qualcomm, according to federal prosecutors.

Mr. Yin’s client, Jing Wang, also pleaded guilty last year to charges of insider trading and money laundering. Mr. Wang was sentenced in June to 18 months in prison and fined $500,000, according to court documents.

Attorneys for Messrs. Yin and Wang didn’t respond to requests for comment.

According to the plea agreement, Mr. Yin, among other things, helped conceal evidence that Mr. Wang had engaged in insider trading by setting up a shell company in the British Virgin Islands, opening a brokerage account in the name of the shell company, and laundering the illegal insider-trading profits by moving them into the British Virgin Islands account.

Trades were then made on inside information about Qualcomm’s dividend, stock buybacks, earnings guidance and the acquisition of Atheros Communications, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which also charged Messrs. Yin and Wang with insider trading back in 2013.

All together, the trades yielded $244,000 for Mr. Wang and $27,000 for Mr. Yin, the SEC said.

A representative for Qualcomm said the company had no comment.

A spokesman for Merrill Lynch noted that the firm terminated Mr. Yin in 2013 and said it cooperated fully with the U.S. attorney’s office on this matter.

Source: WSJ – Ex-Merrill Lynch Broker Ordered to Pay Restitution for Insider Trading

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