Former Investment Banker Sentenced To 36 Months For Insider Trading And Obstruction Of Justice

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that BRIJESH GOEL, a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for insider trading and obstruction of justice.  GOEL was previously convicted after a seven-day trial before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Today’s sentence vindicates the integrity of our financial markets and the investors who play by the rules and serves as a reminder that crime doesn’t pay.  If you try to cheat the system by engaging in insider trading, you will be punished, and if you try to cover your tracks while under investigation, you only make matters worse.”

According to the Indictment, statements made in public court proceedings and filings, and the evidence at trial:

BRIJESH GOEL was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in New York, New York.  In that position, GOEL received confidential internal emails directed to Goldman Sachs’ Firmwide Capital Committee and Credit Markets Capital Committee, which contained detailed information and analysis about potential merger-and-acquisition transactions that Goldman Sachs was considering financing.  In violation of the duties that he owed to Goldman Sachs, GOEL misappropriated that confidential information and tipped a friend, Akshay Niranjan, who worked at another investment bank in New York, New York, with the names of potential target companies from those internal emails during in-person meetings such as when the two met at the New York Health and Racquet Club.  Niranjan then used that confidential information to trade call options, including short-dated, out-of-the-money call options, in brokerage accounts that were in the name of Niranjan’s brother.  GOEL and Niranjan agreed to split the profits from their trading.  Between approximately 2017 and 2018, GOEL tipped Niranjan on at least six deals in which Goldman Sachs was involved, yielding total illegal profits of approximately $280,000. 

Between approximately May and June 2022, GOEL also obstructed investigations by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).  Specifically, GOEL deleted and asked Niranjan to delete text messages regarding the insider trading scheme, including during an in-person meeting that Niranjan consensually recorded.

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In addition to the prison sentence, GOEL, 39, of New York, New York, was sentenced to three years’ supervised release and ordered to forfeit $85,000 and a restitution in an amount to be determined at a future date to Goldman Sachs.  GOEL was also ordered to pay a $75,000 fine.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Mr. Williams further thanked the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for their assistance and cooperation. 

This case is being handled by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.  Assistant U. S. Attorneys Samuel P. Rothschild and Andrew Thomas are in charge of the prosecution.