Ex-Investment Banker From Long Island Convicted For Insider Trading Scheme

North Merrick resident Sean Stewart, 38, a former senior investment banker at two New York-based investment banks was convicted following a seven-day trial for illegally providing tips to his father, Robert Stewart, with non-public information.

Stewart was found guilty of providing his father with non-public information concerning five separate corporate acquisitions before they were announced, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.

Stewart, who worked at JPMorgan Chase and Co and Perella Weinberg Partners, used his position as the Vice President of the Healthcare Investment Banking Group to leak information regarding confidential negotiations prior to multiple corporate acquisitions.

Berman said that Stewart would provide the information to his father, who would then invest in the companies using the inside information. In total, the Stewarts earned more than $1.1 million in profits.

“From 2011 through 2014, Sean Stewart used his position of trust at two different investment banks to steal confidential information and pass it on to his father so he could make illicit profits in the stock market,” he stated.

“As a unanimous jury found today, he abused his positions over and over again to tip his father. Today’s verdict, which comes after the Second Circuit reversed Stewart’s original conviction, shows that this Office and our law enforcement partners at the FBI will persevere to achieve justice.”

Stewart was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and tender offer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six counts of substantive securities fraud and one count of substantive tender offer fraud.

If convicted, Stewart faces decades in prison and up to $5 million in fines. Stewart is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 29, 2020.

Berman noted that Robert Stewart pleaded guilty in August 2015  to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and tender offer fraud and was sentenced to four years probation, with the first year served in home confinement. He was also ordered to forfeit $900,000.

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