Federal prosecutors charged a former employee at Goldman Sachs and Blackstone with securities fraud for allegedly tipping his friends off to more than half a dozen deals.
Anthony Viggiano, 26, told two friends of deals that Viggiano had learned about at his time at the two Wall Street firms, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday. The charges detail how the group made more than $400,000 on trades passed around on messaging apps like Signal as well as Xbox chat.
"Viggiano betrayed the trust of his employers by tipping his friends," Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. "No matter how evasive insider traders' conduct, or the lengths gone to hide their offenses, this Office will track down and prosecute those who attempt to cheat the system."
The latest complaint marks at least the fifth incident involving a Goldman Sachs employee in recent years. Last year, a Goldman banker was accused of passing stock tips to a squash buddy. And that followed a trio of insider trading cases involving Goldman staffers through a span of 18 months ending in October 2019.
Both Goldman and Blackstone said they are cooperating with prosecutors.
"The allegations in the indictment are egregious," said Mary Athridge, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs. "The firm has zero tolerance for this kind of behavior."
Viggiano worked in the asset and wealth management division, according to the indictment. He had previously resigned from a post at Blackstone, after the firm discovered he had been trading without pre-clearance.
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"We make crystal clear to every employee through our extensive compliance and training procedures that we have absolutely zero tolerance for the behavior alleged," Matt Anderson, a Blackstone spokesman, said in a statement. "This individual was a junior analyst in a non-investment, finance function who was briefly employed for less than seven months and left two years ago."
His childhood friend, Christopher Salamone, pleaded guilty on Sept. 21 and is cooperating with prosecutors, the Justice Department said. Lawyers for Viggiano and Salamone declined to comment.
