A former Primary Global Research expert-networking consultant was charged by US prosecutors in Manhattan with selling inside information to portfolio managers at three unidentified hedge funds.
Winifred Jiau, arrested in Fremont, California, as part of a national probe of insider trading, was accused of selling data on Nvidia Corp and Marvell Technology Group, makers of computer components, through Primary Global, according to a filing yesterday in Manhattan federal court. The hedge funds paid her $200,000 through the firm, prosecutors said. Jiau is the seventh person connected to Primary Global to be charged in a multiyear US insider trading investigation that has ensnared company employees and consultants.
Jiau is charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud. The first count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. She appeared yesterday in San Francisco federal court and was ordered held in custody by US Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas, who set a hearing for January 12 on whether to transfer her to New York.
The evidence against Jiau is “strong”, Assistant US Attorney Wilson Leung told the judge, adding that there is a “cooperating witness and audio recordings.” Barry Portman, Jiau’s assigned public defender, said the complaint is a “lengthy document.”
Jiau, who didn’t enter a plea to the charges, is scheduled to appear today to seek release on bail.
‘Expert consultant’
Marilyn Gerber, a spokeswoman for Primary Global, said in an e-mailed statement that Jiau served as an “expert consultant” with the company from September 2006 to December 2008, declining further comment.
Jiau was the fifth Primary Global consultant arrested in an insider-trading crackdown that also has led to criminal charges against two other employees of the company. One of the consultants, former Dell Inc supply chain manager Daniel DeVore, pleaded guilty on December 10.
On December 16, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested three technology company workers who allegedly sold secrets about Apple, Dell and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The men, who worked at AMD, Flextronics International and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, were arrested on securities fraud and conspiracy charges for a scheme that Manhattan United States Attorney Preet Bharara said operated from 2008 to early 2010.
