Wall Street Professional Emanuel Goffer Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to Three Years in Prison for Insider Trading
| U.S. Attorney’s Office October 07, 2011 |
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that EMANUEL GOFFER was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to three years in prison for his participation in an insider trading scheme in which he obtained and traded on material, nonpublic information (“Inside Information”), including information misappropriated from a law firm. Following a four-week jury trial, EMANUEL GOFFER was convicted in June 2011 on all counts against him, including two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. GOFFER was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge RICHARD J. SULLIVAN.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA stated: “Emanuel Goffer went to extreme lengths to conceal his role in a tangled web of insider traders who have all been convicted for illegally trading on proprietary information about public companies. With today’s sentence, he will now be punished for his crimes.”
According to the indictment, a complaint previously filed in this case, and the trial evidence:
In 2007 and 2008, EMANUEL GOFFER obtained Inside Information from his brother, ZVI GOFFER, about mergers and acquisitions of public companies, and traded based on that information. The Inside Information included information provided by two attorneys, ARTHUR CUTILLO and BRIEN SANTARLAS, regarding potential acquisitions of 3Com Corporation and Clear Channel Communications, Inc. CUTILLO and SANTARLAS delivered the Inside Information to JASON GOLDFARB, another attorney, who provided it to ZVI GOFFER. ZVI GOFFER then delivered it to EMANUEL GOFFER, among others, and EMANUEL GOFFER then used it to execute trades. EMANUEL GOFFER made combined profits exceeding $750,000 based on these trades. In an effort to avoid detection by law enforcement, EMANUEL GOFFER used a prepaid cellular telephone to communicate with other participants in the scheme, including ZVI GOFFER, and also engaged in trading strategies designed to conceal his insider trading.
* * *
In addition to the prison term, Judge SULLIVAN sentenced EMANUEL GOFFER, 33, of New York, New York, to three years of supervised release. GOFFER was also ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $761,623 and a $300 special assessment fee.
ZVI GOFFER was also convicted after trial of conspiracy and securities fraud charges for his role in the scheme. CUTILLO, GOLDFARB, and SANTARLAS previously pled guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud charges in connection with their participation in the scheme. ZVI GOFFER was sentenced to 120 months in prison; CUTILLO was sentenced to 30 months in prison; GOLDFARB was sentenced to 36 months in prison; and SANTARLAS’s sentencing is scheduled for October 28, 2011, at 2:30 p.m.
Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the FBI and thanked the SEC for its assistance with the investigation.
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 ANDREW FISH, REED BRODSKY, and RICHARD TARLOWE are in charge of the prosecution.