The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed fraud charges against two former Wall Street investment bankers for allegedly engaging in insider trading.
The charges were filed against Gavin Wolfe and Jason Satsky for engaging in alleged insider trading at South Jersey Industries in advance of its Feb. 24, 2022 announcement that it had been acquired by a private investment fund.
The complaint alleges that Satsky was the co-head of an energy and utility group at a New York investment bank that advised South Jersey on the potential acquisition and served as the lead banker on the transaction. The complaint says that Satsky tipped his long-time business colleague and friend, Wolfe, material nonpublic information regarding the potential acquisition.
Wolfe allegedly bought over 2.2 million shares of South Jersey stock on the basis of the information he received from Satsky. He made approximately $18.5 million when the stock price rose by approximately 40 percent after the acquisition was announced. Wolfe allegedly also tipped others who traded, generating approximately $515,000 in trading profits.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charges Wolfe and Satsky with violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5. The complaint seeks permanent injunctions, civil monetary penalties and officer-and-director bars against Wolfe and Satsky. It also seeks disgorgement and prejudgment interest against Wolfe, and a conduct-based injunction against Satsky.
Further, the complaint names the entities through which Wolfe allegedly traded – including Evergreen Capital, Evergreen Financial, Empire Property Management, and GAW Holdings — as relief defendants, and seeks disgorgement and prejudgment interest against them.
The investigation was conducted by Cynthia Matthews and George Stepaniuk of the SEC’s New York Regional Office and was supervised by Sheldon Pollock. The litigation will be led by Travis Hill, Hayden Brockett and Christopher Kelly and supervised by Daniel Loss and Christopher Colorado.