U.S. Attorney Announces Guilty Plea of Officer of the Court

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Guilty Plea of Jason Goldfarb to Insider Trading Charges
U.S. Attorney’s Office
April 21, 2011  -  Southern District of New York  -  (212) 637-2600


PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that JASON GOLDFARB, an attorney, pled guilty today to conspiracy and securities fraud charges arising from a scheme in which GOLDFARB gave material, non-public information misappropriated from the law firm of Ropes & Gray to ZVI GOFFER, who allegedly traded on that information. GOLDFARB received cash payments for his role in the insider trading scheme. He pled guilty before U.S. District Judge RICHARD J. SULLIVAN.

According to the indictment, a complaint previously filed in this case, and statements made during today’s guilty plea proceeding: In 2007 and 2008, two Ropes & Gray attorneys, ARTHUR CUTILLO and BRIEN SANTARLAS, provided JASON GOLDFARB with material, non-public information (“Inside Information”) about several mergers and acquisitions of public companies for which Ropes & Gray served as legal advisor. GOLDFARB, in turn, delivered the Inside Information to ZVI GOFFER. The Inside Information included information regarding the potential acquisition of 3Com Corporation (“3Com”) and the potential acquisition of Axcan Pharma, Inc. (“Axcan”). GOFFER is alleged to have provided cash payments to GOLDFARB, CUTILLO, and SANTARLAS in exchange for the Inside Information. GOLDFARB, 32, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of securities fraud. The conspiracy count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and the securities fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He faces a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense on the conspiracy count and a maximum fine of $5 million on the securities fraud count. GOLDFARB is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge SULLIVAN on August 19, 2011, at 10:00 a.m. CUTILLO and SANTARLAS both previously pled guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud charges. Charges against GOFFER remain pending and are merely accusations. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Mr. BHARARA praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and thanked the SEC for its assistance in the investigation of this case. This case was brought in coordination with President BARACK OBAMA’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on which Mr. BHARARA serves as a co-chair of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group. President OBAMA established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. Assistant U.S. Attorneys ANDREW FISH and RICHARD TARLOWE are in charge of the prosecution.

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New York Lawyer Jason Goldfarb Pleads Guilty in Probe of Ex-Galleon Trader
Bloomberg News by Chris Dolmetsch and Patricia Hurtado - April 21, 2011

A Brooklyn, New York, lawyer admitted to taking part in what the U.S. says is one of three Galleon Group LLC insider-trading rings. Jason Goldfarb, 32, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and securities fraud before U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan. Goldfarb was one of 20 people who have pleaded guilty in the overlapping insider-trading schemes related to the Galleon hedge fund being investigated by the U.S. “With great regret, I made a horrible mistake and agreed to participate in this scheme,” Goldfarb told the judge at the hearing. Recommended federal sentencing guidelines call for Goldfarb to serve 37 to 46 months in prison and pay $7,500 to $5 million in fines, according to the plea agreement. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 19. His lawyer, Michael Soshnick, declined to comment after the hearing. Goldfarb was accused of conspiring with ex-Galleon trader Zvi Goffer to pay tens of thousands of dollars to Arthur Cutillo and Brien Santarlas, lawyers at Boston-based Ropes & Gray LLP, for information about transactions their firm was working on. Cutillo, Goldfarb’s former college roommate, pleaded guilty in January to charges of conspiracy and securities fraud, and faces as long as 37 months in prison. Santarlas pleaded guilty in December 2009 and is cooperating with authorities.

Dinner Meeting

“Many years ago I was approached by another defendant, Zvi Goffer,” Goldfarb said in court today. “I’d just graduated from law school at the time. Mr. Goffer asked me if I knew anyone doing corporate work that I should let him know.” Goldfarb said he arranged for a dinner meeting with Goffer, Santarlas and Cutillo in about 2004. Later in about 2007, Goldfarb told the judge that Cutillo’s firm merged with another firm that did corporate work. “I set up a dinner with Zvi Goffer, who explained to Mr. Cutillo that he was looking for any type of information he might might come across that might benefit him and he might make some money,” Goldfarb told the judge. Cutillo admitted in court in January that he and Santarlas leaked information about transactions involving 3Com Inc. and Axcan Pharma Inc. Goldfarb passed the tips to Goffer, who traded on the information, Cutillo said.

Pending Deals

Cutillo said Goldfarb asked him to obtain material nonpublic information about pending deals the firm was working on. Cutillo said he was paid $32,500 by Goldfarb, which he understood was the result of money Goffer made from trading on the information. Goffer and three other traders accused in the scheme -- his brother Emanuel Goffer, Craig Drimal and Michael Kimelman -- pleaded not guilty to new federal charges against them on April 19. They are scheduled to go to trial May 16. Goffer’s trades on the tips resulted in profits of about $1 million, and he gave Goldfarb $97,500 for the information, to be distributed among the three men, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Fish said. As part of the plea agreement, Goldfarb won’t be prosecuted further by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, except for any potential criminal tax violations, according to a copy of the pact. The case is U.S. v. Goffer, 10-cr-00056, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net; Patricia Hurtado in New York at pathurtado@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.