Former Indiana Republican Representative Stephen Buyer has been charged with insider trading by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The charge comes after Mr Buyer bought shares in the telecommunications company Sprint before its merger with T-Mobile, prosecutors said.
Mr Buyer represented Indiana’s Fourth Congressional District from 1993 until 2011. He formed the Steve Buyer Group, a consulting firm, after leaving Congress.
He was a T-Mobile consultant before the merger in 2018, the indictment filed on Monday stated.
“In March 2018, Buyer attended a golf outing with a T-Mobile executive, from whom he learned about the company’s then nonpublic plan to acquire Sprint”, the SEC said in a statement. “Buyer began purchasing Sprint securities the next day, and, ahead of the merger announcement, he acquired a total of $568,000 of Sprint common stock in his own personal accounts, a joint account with his cousin, and an acquaintance’s account. After news of the merger leaked in April 2018, Buyer saw an immediate profit of more than $107,000.”
The agency added that Mr Buyer bought more than $1m of Navigant Consulting securities in 2019 – before the announcement that it was going to be acquired by Guidehouse LLP, one of Mr Buyer’s clients.
He “again spread the purchases across several accounts, including his own accounts, joint accounts with his wife and son, his wife’s personal account, and the same acquaintance’s account involved in the Sprint trading”, the SEC said.
The complaint states that he sold almost all of those shares on the day that the acquisition was announced in August 2019 for a gain of more than $227,000.
“When insiders like Buyer – an attorney, a former prosecutor, and a retired Congressman – monetize their access to material, nonpublic information, as alleged in this case, they not only violate the federal securities laws, but also undermine public trust and confidence in the fairness of our markets”, said Gurbir Grewal, the Director of the SEC Enforcement Division. “We are committed to doing all we can to maintain and enhance public trust by leveling the playing field and holding Buyer accountable for illegally profiting from his access.”
In a statement to The Independent, Mr Buyer’s counsel Andrew Goldstein said: “Congressman Buyer is innocent. His stock trades were lawful. He looks forward to being quickly vindicated.”
