WASHINGTON (AFP) - a former CEO of Nasdaq Thursday pleaded guilty to insider who reported him over $ 755,000 in illicit profits over a period of three years, authorities said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Donald Johnson "with insider information confidential that he stole while working in an intelligence unit of the market that communicates with moving companies in the market for public announcements."
During this time, the Ministry of Justice, working in parallel, said that he had pleaded guilty to a county of securities fraud.
The authorities accused Johnson of the commercial through securities account of his wife on prior information of changes in leadership business, the reports of earnings and forecasts and regulatory approvals of new pharmaceutical products.
Johnson, 56, pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Virginia U.S., U.S. Department of Justice said in a separate statement.
"In pleading guilty, he admitted that he buys and sells shares of companies listed on the Nasdaq based on material, non-public information, or information, on several occasions different from 2006 to 2009," the Ministry said.
Johnson had been a Director-General on the tech-rich Nasdaq market intelligence desk in New York during the period.
According to the authorities, Johnson frequently put illegal trades directly from his computer to work with an account on behalf of his wife, Dalila Lopez online brokerage.
"This case is the version of the Fox guarding the henhouse, initiated," said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC enforcement division.
"Instead of protecting the confidential information of client Nasdaq, Johnson secretly exchanged the information client for personal gain, even with its Nasdaq desktop to make trades."
Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced August 12. He faces a maximum penalty of imprisonment for fraud securities of 20 years in prison and a fine of $ 5 million.
The SEC said it was seeking reimbursement of illicit profits with interest and a penalty, but did not provide a figure.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Johnson admitted that he repeatedly used privileged information to buy or sell the stock short in various companies listed on the Nasdaq shortly before the information was made public.
He said "it would then generate significant gains in reversing the positions shortly after the announcement,".
Johnson admitted that he made illegal trades in less than eight different occasions, the Ministry said.
Companies whose securities it illegally transferred were central garden and Pet Co.; Digene Corporation; IDEXX Laboratories Inc. development of pharmaceutical products Inc.; and United Therapeutics Corporation.
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