Stock Trader Charged With Pill Tampering
A federal grand jury Thursday indicted Edward Arlen Marks, 24, an unemployed Temple City stock trader, on 27 counts related to tampering with Contac cold capsules and other drugs in Orlando, Fla., and Houston, U.S. prosecutors said.
The FBI arrested Marks in March at Los Angeles International Airport and charged him with putting small amounts of warfarin, a rodent poison, in Contac, Dietac and Teldrin, all produced by SmithKline Beckman Corp. of Philadelphia.
The government alleges that Marks tampered with the products to create public hysteria intended to cause a decline in the value of SmithKline stock. No deaths or injuries were reported. On March 18 and 19, Marks allegedly bought 2,360 SmithKline “puts” options, a type of option that could have resulted in a large profit if the stock had dropped unexpectedly and considerably in price over a specified period of time.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
