Judge Dismisses Some Charges in Insider Case

A federal judge formally dismissed 38 insider trading-related counts Tuesday against a lawyer accused of stealing clients’ money to trade on information leaked by a Wall Street Journal reporter.

The lawyer, David W. C. Clark, is scheduled to go to trial Oct. 5 on the remaining 17 counts of a 55-count indictment, including income tax evasion, embezzlement and perjury.

Clark is accused of using $3.7 million allegedly embezzled from law clients to trade on inside stock information leaked by former Journal reporter R. Foster Winans.

Winans and two co-defendants are appealing their 1985 convictions for securities fraud to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan said Clark’s trial on insider trading charges must be delayed, pending the outcome of the Winans appeal, prosecutors decided earlier this month to drop those charges.

Keenan signed an order permanently dismissing the 38 insider trading-related charges against Clark, 37, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at prosecutors’ request.