Saturday,
June 26, 2015
Former Senior Executive of
Qualcomm Sentenced to 18 Months and Fined $500,000 for Insider Trading and
Money Laundering
The former
Executive Vice President and President of Global Business Operations for
Qualcomm Inc., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison and fined $500,000
for his role in a three-year insider trading scheme.
Assistant
Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal
Division and U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy of the Southern District of
California made the announcement.
“Through his
position as a high-ranking executive at Qualcomm, Jing Wang gained unique
access to information about the company’s earnings and intended acquisitions
and illegally exploited that inside information for personal gain,” said
Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “He then enlisted the services of
others – his stock broker and his brother – to cover up the scheme.
This
prosecution demonstrates the Criminal Division’s commitment to holding
accountable corporate executives who would undermine the integrity of the
financial marketplace.”
“Jing Wang
was a powerful insider at one of the world’s top corporations – but he threw it
all away to make a few hundred thousand dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Duffy.
“While Wang has lost his power, his position and
his freedom, the real losers here are investors who play by the rules, and our
nation’s financial system, which is diminished with every one of these
schemes.”
Jing Wang,
52, of Del Mar, California, pleaded guilty in July 2014 to insider trading,
money laundering and obstruction of justice for orchestrating a multi-year
scheme to trade on the confidential information of Qualcomm and cover up his
criminal conduct.
The sentence
was imposed by U.S. District Judge William Q. Hayes of the Southern District of
California.
In connection
with his plea, Wang admitted that he made three, separate insider trades using
a brokerage account in the name of his British Virgin Island (BVI) shell
company, Unicorn Global Enterprises. First, in early 2010, prior to Qualcomm’s
announcement of a dividend increase and stock repurchase, Wang bought company
stock valued at approximately $277,000.
He also admitted that, in December 2010, while
attending Qualcomm’s Board of Directors meeting in Hong Kong, and hours after
the Board approved a non-public offer to purchase Atheros, a developer of
semiconductors for wireless communications, Wang purchased stock in
Atheros. Wang further admitted that, just a few weeks later, he directed
his stockbroker, Gary Yin, to sell the Atheros stock, for approximately
$481,000, and purchase Qualcomm stock one day before the company announced
record earnings.
Wang also
pleaded guilty to money laundering for transferring the illegal proceeds from
Unicorn’s account to an account of a new BVI shell company he controlled.
He further
admitted to obstructing justice by creating a false cover story in which he and
co-conspirator Yin would blame Wang’s brother Bing Wang, who resides in rural
China, for the insider trading and ownership of the Unicorn Account.
Among other acts, Wang collected incriminating
evidence and provided it to Yin to take to China, and arranged meetings between
Yin and Bing Wang during which the two rehearsed the false
account.
Yin pleaded
guilty to conspiring to obstruct justice and launder money, and currently is
scheduled to be sentenced on July 17, 2015. Bing Wang has been charged in
connection with the scheme, and is wanted on an international arrest
warrant.
This case was investigated
by the FBI’s San Diego Field Office and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal
Investigation’s San Diego Field Division.
The SEC’s Los Angeles
Regional Office provided substantial assistance. The case is being
prosecuted by Trial Attorney James P. McDonald of the Criminal Division’s Fraud
Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric J. Beste of the Southern District of
California.
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