Ex-Merck & Co. Analyst Facing Insider Trading Charges to Plead Guilty
February 10, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
A former Merck & Co. finance analyst on trial for conspiracy and securities charges will plead guilty to an insider trading scheme, said his lawyer Monday, in the hopes of receiving a more lenient punishment during the sentencing hearing.
Zachary Zwerko is on trial for allegedly leaking inside information about possible mergers in the pharmaceutical sector to David Post, a former product manager at Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has alleged that the two former Rutgers Business School classmates conspired from 2012 to 2014 on a numerous of insider financial deals, including Merck's acquisitions of Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. , Ardea BioSciences and ViroPharma Incorporated
Those trades then netted Post $737,000, of which he then kicked about $57,000 of back to Zwerko. For his part, Post decided to cooperate with prosecutors, and pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy and securities fraud.
Zwerko is among 92 people charged Bharara since 2009 as part of a backlash against the excesses that characterized the years leading up the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Part of that “clean house” strategy was a crackdown on insider trading, which quickly swept up both Zwerko and Post. Prosecutors and Zwerko now have a Feb. 19 plea hearing to work out the details, said U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Monday.
"We will present our case at sentencing, and this case will be put in better context," Zwerko’s lawyer, Jeffrey Denner.
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