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Albany County resident Patrick O’Connor, age 67, of Preston-Potter Hollow, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in Albany federal court on Monday, Feb. 26.
O’Connor worked as a personal pilot to billionaire Joseph Lewis, a British businessman and investor who is the principal owner of the Tavistock Group, an international private investment organization.
According to prosecutors, Lewis, age 87, was regularly given material, non-public information about various companies for which he controlled one or more board of director seats.
An investigation found that Lewis passed that privileged information along to O’Connor, who used it to make stock trades.
In a particularly incriminating message with a friend on WhatsApp, O’Connor said Lewis had given him inside information about Mirati Therapeutics and told the friend “we will make much more within the next six weeks with Mirati.”
Days later, O’Connor told the same friend to buy Mirati stock and said the “boss (Lewis) is helping us out and told us to get ASAP.”
He added that “all conversations on app is encrypted so all good. No one can ever see.”
Within days of that conversation, Lewis wired $500,000 to O’Connor, and O’Connor used the money to purchase Mirati stock, prosecutors said.
On Oct. 22, 2019, O’Connor reportedly sent a text message to his friend saying that Oct. 28, 2019 would be “the big day for MRTX.”
He went on to say that he thought Lewis had inside info and “knows the outcome” because “otherwise why would he make us invest?”
In court Monday, O’Connor pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of securities fraud. He faces up to 25 years in federal prison when he’s sentenced in May.
Lewis pleaded guilty to the same charges in January 2024 and is awaiting sentencing.
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