Thursday, November 5, 2009

Federal prosecutors say criminal charges have been filed against 14 people, including attorneys and Wall Street professionals. It is part of a widening $25 million insider trading case that has already snared one of the richest men in America.

According to court papers filed in federal court in Manhattan, Zvi Goffer operated an insider trading network in 2007 and 2008 that included a lawyer who fed tips gleaned from his firm's work on acquisition deals.

The papers say Goffer worked at Shottenfeld Group in Manhattan in 2007 and at Galleon Group for the first nine months of 2008 before he started his own trading firm.

Last month, authorities arrested the founder of Galleon Group and five others in an insider trading scheme that the Securities and Exchange Commission estimated produced $25 million in profits for its participants.