Expert Networking Firm Consultant Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to One Year and One Day in Prison for Insider Trading Conspiracy Charge
| U.S. Attorney’s Office October 25, 2012 |
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Alnoor Ebrahim was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to one year and one day in prison for conspiring to commit securities fraud and wire fraud in connection with an insider trading scheme in which Ebrahim, formerly an associate director of channel marketing at AT&T, provided material, non-public information to members of the investment community. The information concerned product sales for AT&T’s handset devices, including Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research in Motion Limited’s Blackberry products. Ebrahim pled guilty on June 18, 2012. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul J. Oetken.
According to the information, statements made during Ebrahim’s guilty plea proceeding, and evidence from the trial of his co-conspirator, James Fleishman:
Between 2008 and 2010, Ebrahim provided material non-public information concerning, among other things, product sales information for AT&T’s handset devices, including Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research in Motion Limited’s Blackberry products (the “inside information”) in breach of his duties of trust and loyalty to AT&T. Ebrahim and his co-conspirators used an “expert networking” firm (the “firm”) for the purpose of facilitating “consultation calls,” during which Ebrahim provided the inside information to firm clients. Many of the consultation calls in which Ebrahim provided the inside information were with employees of investment firms located in New York, New York. During this time period, Ebrahim had hundreds of calls with firm clients, and the firm paid Ebrahim more than $180,000 for his consultation calls.
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In addition to the prison term, Judge Oetken sentenced Ebrahim, 57, of Alpharetta, Georgia, to two years of supervised release. Ebrahim was also ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $189,893, a $10,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment. Restitution will be determined at a later date.
Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also thanked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
This case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on which Mr. Bharara serves as a co-chair of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch and, with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Antonia M. Apps is in charge of the prosecution.