An ex-Pfizer staffer was arrested on Thursday for an insider trading scheme using confidential information on a COVID-19 drug and is now facing decades in prison
Amit Dagar, 44, allegedly leaked inside information on the clinical trials of the Pfizer Covid-19 drug Paxlovid to receive illegal profits from insider trading.
Dagar received information that Pfizer’s Paxlovid drug received positive results in its clinical trials, according to a DOJ report from November 4, 2021.
Dagar then “purchased short-dated, out-of-the-money call options in Pfizer stock.”
Knowing the positive results of the trials, he tipped his friend, Atul Bhiwapurkar, who also bought Pfizer call options.
Pfizer’s stock shot up 10% the next day due to the results of the Paxlovid trials.
Dagar and Bhiwapurkar both sold their stock to amass close to $350,000.
As USA Today reported:
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, Amit Dagar, 44, is accused of abusing inside information about clinical trials of the COVID-19 medicine Paxlovid to receive illicit profits using options trading.
Dagar, of Hillsborough, New Jersey, worked at Pfizer, where he helped manage data analysis for some clinical drug trials. According to the release, Dagar found out that Pfizer’s trial of Paxlovid was successful around November 4, 2021, but the results were confidential and were set to be publicized around November 5, 2021.
According to the release, Dagar purchased “short-dated, out-of-the-money call options in Pfizer stock” that same day. He also told his friend, Atul Bhiwapurkar, about the positive results, leading Bhiwapurkar to also purchase call options that expired two weeks after. Bhiwapurkar told another friend about the situation, who is unnamed in the press release, who bought call options that expired three weeks after the purchase.
The DOJ has charged Dagar with “Four counts of securities fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.”
According to Reuters, Dagar was a senior statistical program lead for the Paxlovid drug trial, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s parallel civil case.
A Pfizer spokesperson said the charges “relate to the personal conduct of a former Pfizer employee in violation of the company’s policies,” adding that the company is cooperating with the investigation.
Patrick Smith, an attorney representing Dagar, said his client denies the allegations.
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Why aren’t all of our politicians being arrested for the same offense? They constantly use insider information to line their pockets and their family members.
They should have been a congressperson