By Brendan Pierson
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors charged a vice president at Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Thursday with making more than $130,000 through illegal trades using inside information about companies advised by the investment bank.
Prosecutors said Woojae Jung, a 37-year old South Korean citizen, used confidential information about upcoming transactions he learned through his work for the bank, to trade in companies such as W.R. Grace & Co and Foresight Energy LP, according to a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
Goldman Sachs could not immediately be reached for comment. A lawyer for Jung could not immediately be identified.
Prosecutors said Jung engaged in those trades through a brokerage account in the name of a friend living in South Korea.
The insider trading continued until 2017, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requested information from Goldman about which employees had access to confidential information about certain transactions, they said.
Following that request, prosecutors said, someone called the brokerage firm whose account was used to make those illegal trades. Using the name of Jung’s friend in Korea, the caller said that the account had been opened using stolen personal information, and he was concerned about the transactions in the account.
Jung is charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. He also faces related civil charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC has accused Jung of making more than $140,000 through insider trading in 12 companies.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum)