US federal authorities are examining whether multiple insider-trading rings reaped illegal profits totaling tens of millions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The three-year criminal and civil investigation could result in charges by the end of the year, the Journal reported. A federal grand jury in New York has heard evidence, the paper said. Since the investigation isn’t finished, it’s unclear what charges, if any, may be brought.
One focus of the criminal -investigation is whether independent analysts and consultants who work for companies that provide “expert network” services to hedge funds and mutual funds passed along non-public information, the Journal reported. Such companies set up meetings and calls between current and former managers and traders who want an investing edge.
The newspaper said one firm under examination is Primary Global Research LLC of Mountain View, California, which connects experts with investors seeking information in the technology, healthcare and other industries. Chief operating officer Phani Kumar Saripella declined to comment to the Journal. The firm’s Web site says Saripella and the firm’s CEO previously worked for Intel Corp.
Prosecutors and regulators are also examining whether bankers from Goldman Sachs Group Inc leaked information about transactions, including healthcare mergers, to the benefit of certain investors, the Journal reported, based on anonymous sources. Goldman declined to comment to the newspaper.
The examination includes independent analysts and research boutiques. John Kinnucan, a principal at Broadband Research LLC in Portland, Oregon, described a visit by FBI agents in an Oct. 26 e-mail to roughly 20 hedge-fund and mutual-fund clients.
The Journal said Kinnucan confirmed that he wrote the e-mail, which was addressed to traders at firms including the hedge funds SAC Capital Advisors LP and Citadel Asset Management, and -mutual-fund companies Janus Capital Group, Wellington Management Co and MFS Investment Management. None of the firms commented to the Journal, and it isn’t known whether they are under investigation for their business with Kinnucan.
The investigations have been conducted by the FBI, federal -prosecutors in New York, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Calls to an SEC spokesman and the FBI on Saturday were not immediately returned. Ellen Davis, spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s Office, declined to comment.
The probe is also examining whether traders at some hedge funds and trading firms gained nonpublic information about upcoming healthcare, technology and other mergers, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The SEC investigation includes potential leaks on takeover deals going back to at least 2007. Last fall the SEC subpoenaed more than 30 hedge funds and other investors, the Journal said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained