Onetime BigLaw Associate, 2 Co-Defendants Part of $33M Insider-Trading Settlement
Updated: A former attorney at four major law firms who pleaded guilty last year in an insider trading case in federal court in Newark, N.J., has agreed, with two co-defendants, to settle a civil case for $33 million.
Matthew Kluger, who is now in his early 50s, agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the civil penalty along with day trader Garrett Bauer and middleman Kenneth T. Robinson, who eventually cooperated with authorities. All but about $1.3 million of the money will come from Bauer, reports Bloomberg. Kluger’s share of the settlement is $516,510.
All three are scheduled to be sentenced in early June in the criminal case, reports the DealBook page of the New York Times.
An earlier ABAJournal.com post details what Kluger is accused of doing during a 17-year period, starting as a summer associate in 1994, in which he worked for multiple major-name law firms.
Among other alleged misconduct, he is accused of using title information on sensitive material at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he worked at one point as an associate, to figure out what deals were pending. Meanwhile, he avoided detection by not actually opening the computerized documents, federal prosecutors said.
Kluger also worked at Cravath Swaine & Moore; Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson; and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom.
None of the law firms was accused of any wrongdoing concerning Kluger’s stock activities.
Reuters and the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). also have stories.
Updated at 5:15 p.m. to link to additional coverage and at 5:25 p.m. to include and accord with information from Bloomberg about amount of SEC settlement.
