Manhattan U.S. Attorney and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Announce Guilty Plea of Expert Networking Firm Consultant to Insider Trading Conspiracy Charge

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Janice K. Fedarcyk, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced that Alnoor Ebrahim pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy 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 before U.S. District Judge Paul J. Oetken.

According to the information, statements made during today’s guilty plea proceeding, and evidence from the trial of Ebrahim’s 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, the firm paid Ebrahim more than $180,000 for his consultation calls.

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Ebrahim, 57, of Alpharetta, Georgia, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. The conspiracy count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Ebrahim also faces a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense on the conspiracy count, and agreed as part of his plea agreement to forfeit the proceeds he obtained as a result of the offense.

Ebrahim is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Oetken on October 25, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.

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 and Reed Brodsky are in charge of the prosecution.