Former Merck & Co analyst enters guilty plea for insider trading

A former Merck and Co Inc financial analyst was sentenced to three years and a month in prison for insider trading charge by the US Attorney of New York.

The Civil Lawsuit which was filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission also saw the defendant, Zachary Zwerko ordered by the court to pay a fine of more than $694,000.

According to Bloomberg, Zwerko, 33, pleaded guilty in front of the court for all the accusation made. According to the statement, he pleaded guilty for tipping his friend about a potential pharmaceutical merger between Idenix Pharmaceuticals and Ardea Biosciences.

The information given had led his friend to obtain a total of $722,000 profit as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Reuters reported that Zwerko friend, David Post is a friend whom he had known from Rutgers Business School. David Post who is also a former Bank of New York product manager pleaded guilty for his involvement in the scandal back in October 2014. He is also reported to pay Zwerko a total of $57,000 for his involvement.

Merck and Co Inc was planning to buy Ardea Biosciences back in 2013 however, the company was acquired by AstraZenaca in a deal worth $1.2 billion. Due to the circumstance, Merck had purchased Idenix Pharmaceuticals this year for a value of $3.8 billion.

Zwerko has been working with Merck as financial evaluation and analysis group from 2010 to 2014 which is in the same time frame when the accusation takes place. During the time, both Zwerko and Post has been using disposable cell phones to exchange the information.

This is not the first case of insider trading ever filed, but the action has been actively participate by individuals in the pharmaceutical industry lately. Previously a former FDA chemist was sentenced to five years in Prison after he had leaked an information which lead himself to make a total profit almost $3.8 million.

The US has been actively cracking down on insider trading as it could lead to a serious loss for both the companies and the market.

According to the US Attorney Preet Bharara "Zwerko's attempts to circumvent the law and share inside information may have made him and his co-conspirator lots of money, but such criminal conduct has now come at the expense of his freedom."

According to the report in the Bharara's office, the firm has secured a conviction of up to 83 people so far since 2009.