United States authorities have charged six people, including a Nigerian and four Pakistani nationals, over an alleged insider trading and market manipulation operation said to have generated about $41 million in illegal profits.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified the suspects as Izunna Okonkwo, a Nigerian, and Muhammad Saad Shoukat, Muhammad Arham Shoukat, Muhammad Shahwaiz Shoukat, and Daniyal Khan, all from Pakistan. Another suspect, Gyunho Justin Kim, was charged separately.
In a statement released by the US Department of Justice, the FBI said the defendants were involved in “a years-long scheme to trade securities based on material non-public information (MNPI)”. Investigators said the case arose from multiple overlapping fraud schemes carried out between June 2020 and February 2024.
According to FBI, Kim was employed at an investment bank that handled mergers and acquisitions involving publicly listed healthcare and biopharmaceutical firms.
He allegedly accessed confidential information about pending deals and passed it to Saad Shoukat, who then traded on the information and shared it with others.
FBI said, “Saad Shoukat also tipped off others — including Arham Shoukat, Shahwaiz Shoukat, Khan, and Okonkwo — who similarly traded and profited from the MNPI.”
The agency said the group also engaged in stock price manipulation involving Olema Pharmaceuticals and Opiant Pharmaceuticals. In the Olema case, investigators alleged that false data about a breast cancer drug was circulated to inflate the company’s stock price, allowing the suspects to sell shares at a profit.
In another instance, authorities said a fake press release announcing a non-existent acquisition involving Opiant was published using fraudulent websites and email addresses, causing the stock price to jump by about 29 per cent before the suspects sold off their shares.
US prosecutors said the alleged actions caused heavy losses to other investors and undermined market integrity. If found guilty, the defendants face potential prison sentences of more than 20 years under US federal law.
