Five charged with insider trading involving U.S. health agency

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. | Wed May 24, 2017 | 1:53pm EDT

Five charged with insider trading involving U.S. health agency

By Brendan Pierson | NEW YORK

Five men, including a Washington, D.C. political consultant and a federal employee, were criminally charged on Wednesday with engaging in an insider trading scheme based on leaks from within a federal healthcare agency.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Wednesday announced the arrest of political consultant David Blaszczak, founder of Precipio Health Strategies; U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) employee Christopher Worrall; and Rob Olan and Ted Huber, employees of the healthcare hedge fund Deerfield Management.

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Prosecutors said that from 2012 to 2014, Olan, Huber and Fogel schemed to get confidential information about CMS's internal decision-making from Blaszczak, who previously worked there. Blaszczak in turn got the information from his former colleague and "close friend" Worrall, prosecutors said.

CMS, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, oversees government health insurance programs. The confidential information included advance notice about rules cutting reimbursement rates for radiation cancer treatment and dialysis, allowing Deerfield to short healthcare companies affected by the cuts.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-insidertrading-idUSKBN18K202

[nitpicker]

1. Link to the DoJ PR

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/four-charged-scheme-commit-insider-trading-based-confidential-government-information