Ex-Attorney At Top 10 Biglaw Firm Pleads Guilty To Insider Trading
The former visiting attorney at the elite firm faces up to 20 years in prison for insider trading.
Trading on insider information never, ever ends well for anyone — especially if you’re an attorney at a Biglaw firm.
Romero Cabral Da Costa Neto, 33, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, started working as a visiting attorney at Gibson Dunn in September 2022. Back in August, Costa was arrested and charged with insider trading, accused of accessing confidential client information from within Gibson Dunn’s internal filing system to make trades ahead of a major pharmaceutical M&A deal. Earlier this week, he pleaded guilty to the charges. The National Law Journal has the details:
Costa pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols of the District of Columbia, who scheduled sentencing for Dec. 20. Costa faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for insider trading, as well as potential financial penalties.
Costa is also facing additional charges of securities violations in a parallel civil complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Philadelphia regional office.
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U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves offered the following statement: “This attorney stole material non-public information, betrayed his law firm, victimized its client companies, and monetized those insider secrets to gain an illegal advantage on other investors.”
As noted by the NLJ, Gibson Dunn is continuing to assist with the investigation. “We are cooperating with authorities and have terminated our relationship with the individual, who was an international visiting attorney from another law firm,” a firm spokesperson said.
Costa is represented by attorneys from Boies Schiller & Flexner.
Ex-Visiting Attorney at Gibson Dunn Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading [National Law Journal]
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Earlier: Ex-Attorney At Top 10 Biglaw Firm Charged With Insider Trading
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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