November 20, 2012 by MassDevice staff
The Securities & Exchange Commission charges Stryker marketing executive Mark Foldy alongside a handful of others in an insider trading scheme that allegedly generated $1.7 million in illegal profits and kickbacks.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Former Stryker (NYSE:SYK) marketing executive Mark Foldy was charged alongside a handful of others for his alleged participation in an insider trading scheme that federal authorities say generated $1.7 million in illegal profits and kickbacks.
Foldy allegedly schemed with Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) accounting & reporting director Mark Cupo and Celgene (NSDQ:CELG) financial reporting director John Lazorchak, illegally leaking confidential information about their companies to high school friends who conducted the trades under an “elaborate smokescreen,” SEC investigators said.
Sign up to get our free newsletters delivered straight to your inbox
The defendants allegedly compiled detailed binders of information on the companies in order to conceal their insider trading as research-motivated decisions.
“This is yet another case where wrongdoers believed they could outsmart investigators by creating an elaborate smokescreen to hide their insider trading,” Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit and Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office Daniel Hawke said in prepared remarks. “Such tactics as using middlemen to pass inside information and compiling research to falsely justify illegal trades will not prevent lawbreakers from getting caught.”
The tips allegedly included advance information about Stryker’s May 2011 plans to buy Orthovita for $316 million.
“Mr. Foldy is no longer an employee and we have no further comments,” Stryker spokeswoman Jo Johnson told Bloomberg.
