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Press Release

Evanston Woman Charged With Insider Trading

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois

CHICAGO — An Evanston woman used insider information obtained from her husband to purchase shares of a company ahead of its acquisition by her husband’s employer, according to a federal criminal charge filed today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago.

In August and September 2019, DENISE GREVAS made $286,960 in illegal profits from the purchase and sale of securities in a Washington state-based pharmaceutical company that was a target for acquisition and later acquired by an overseas-based pharmaceutical company that had an office in Deerfield, Ill., and employed Grevas’s husband, according to a criminal information filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.  Grevas used material, non-public information about the expected acquisition to purchase shares in the Washington company ahead of a public announcement of the acquisition on Sept. 16, 2019, the charge alleges.  After the announcement, the Washington company’s stock price increased and Grevas sold her shares for the profit, the charge alleges.

The information charges Grevas, 60, with one count of securities fraud.  The charge, which was filed by the Securities and Commodities Fraud Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.  Arraignment in federal court in Chicago has not yet been scheduled.

The charge was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a civil enforcement action against Grevas, provided valuable assistance.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared Hasten and Jason Yonan represent the government in the criminal case.

The public is reminded that an information is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 

Updated August 18, 2021

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Financial Fraud
Securities, Commodities, & Investment Fraud