The SEC announced a massive insider trading case today against Maher Kara, a former Citigroup investment banker, his brother, and six other individuals. The SEC alleges that Maher Kara repeatedly tipped his brother about upcoming merger deals in a scheme that involved numerous friends and family and resulted in more than $6 million in illicit profits.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Maher Kara was a director in Citigroup Global Markets’ investment banking division in New York. The SEC claims he repeatedly told his brother Michael Kara about upcoming deals involving Citigroup’s health care industry clients, and that his brother traded in the securities of at least 20 of the target companies and also leaked the information to a network of friends and family who traded in advance of the deals.
