Former Morgan Stanley exec held
A former Morgan Stanley vice president and her husband, an ex-hedge fund analyst at an ING Group unit, were arrested Thursday, accused of illegally parlaying inside information into $600,000 in trading profits.
The arrest of the couple came on the same day that a former Morgan Stanley compliance officer, Randi Collotta, and her husband pleaded guilty to federal insider trading charges in a separate case.
Jennifer Wang, 31, and her husband, Ruben Chen, 34, traded on inside information obtained from Morgan Stanley regarding the acquisition of three companies, said Michael J. Garcia, a U.S. attorney in New York.
Mark Lake, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley, called Wang’s alleged conduct “an egregious violation of Morgan Stanley’s values and policies.”
An ING spokeswoman couldn’t be reached for comment, nor could David Spears, a lawyer for Wang and Chen. The couple live in Englishtown, N.J.
Wang was a vice president in the finance department at Morgan Stanley. Chen was a hedge fund analyst at ING Investment Management, a unit of the Dutch financial services giant.
From December 2005 through March 2007, Wang and Chen traded in the securities of Town & Country Trust, Glenborough Realty Trust and Genesis Health Care, based on information Wang learned from Morgan Stanley, prosecutors said.
Morgan Stanley was advising its subsidiary Morgan Stanley Real Estate on the acquisition of Town & Country and Glenborough. Wang had learned about the firm’s failure to acquire Town & Country and the successful purchase of Glenborough before the information became public, Garcia said.
