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Press Release

Biopharmaceutical Employee Sentenced for Insider Trading

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – An employee of a Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for engaging in an insider trading scheme. 

Schultz “Jason” Chan, 54, of Newton, the Director of Biostatistics at a Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to three years in prison and one year of supervised release. Judge Talwani also ordered the defendant to either pay a fine or forfeiture of $65,000 and restitution to be determined at a later date. In July 2018, Chan was convicted by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and three counts of securities fraud. Co-defendant Songjiang Wang, 54, of Westford, the Director of Statistical Programming at a different biopharmaceutical company, was convicted during the same trial of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two count of securities fraud. Wang is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13, 2018.

From August 2013 to September 2015, Wang and Chan, who were friends, conspired to commit securities fraud by trading insider information regarding successful clinical drug trials at their respective companies. Specifically, Wang traded on inside information Chan provided regarding a clinical study conducted by Chan’s employer. In addition, over a period of several months, Wang tipped Chan of clinical trial results of a Phase 3 clinical trial being conducted by his employer. Furthermore, Wang gave Chan cash, which Chan used to purchase stock shares of Wang’s employer. Chan subsequently sold those shares and paid back Wang.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, made the announcement today. The United States Attorney’s Office received valuable assistance from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordi de Llano, Deputy Chief of Lelling’s Securities and Financial Fraud Unit, and Assistant United States Attorney Kriss Basil, also of the Securities and Financial Fraud Unit, are prosecuting the case.

Updated November 5, 2018

Topic
Financial Fraud