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Press Release

Suburban Chicago Woman Sentenced to a Year in Federal Prison for Insider Trading

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

CHICAGO — A federal judge today sentenced a suburban Chicago woman to a year in prison for using insider information obtained from her husband to purchase shares of a company ahead of its acquisition by the husband’s employer.

DENISE GREVAS, 60, of Evanston, Ill., pleaded guilty last year to a securities fraud charge.  In addition to the year-and-a-day prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber fined Grevas $100,000.

The sentence 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 represented the government in the criminal case.

Grevas admitted in a plea agreement that she made $286,960 in illegal profits from the purchase and sale of securities in a Washington state-based pharmaceutical company, which was a target for acquisition and later acquired by a foreign pharmaceutical company that employed Grevas’s husband.  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.  After the announcement, the Washington company’s stock price increased and Grevas sold the shares for the profit.

Updated March 29, 2022

Topics
Cybercrime
Financial Fraud
Securities, Commodities, & Investment Fraud