Reuters – A hedge fund manager, a brokerage trader and a financial adviser were charged on Thursday with insider trading in the stock of supermarket chain Albertsons Inc, reaping total profits of about $7.5 million, according to court documents.

The criminal complaints were filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Joseph Contorinis, a former employee at Jefferies Asset Management LLC, as well as trader Michael Koulouroudis and financial adviser Nicos Achillea Stephanou, whose employers were not immediately known.

Jefferies was not mentioned in the complaint against Contorinis. Firm spokesman Tom Tarrant said Contorinis left a year ago. He declined to comment on the charge or arrest of Contorinis by the FBI on Thursday.

Read Complete Article

Tags: 5-million, albertsons inc, asset-management, brokerage, court documents, criminal complaints, fbi, financial adviser, hedge-fund-manager, insider trading, jefferies, manhattan, profits, reuters, spokesman, stock, supermarket chain

New York (HedgeCo.Net) – A Blackstone Group executive has been sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after allegedly fronting an insider trading scam that involved supermarket chain Albertsons.

According to the complaint, Managing Director Ramesh Chakrapani tipped off a friend with private information regarding the acquisition of Albertsons in 2006 by private equity firm Cerberus, before it was announced to the public.  The SEC alleges Chakrapani’s actions raked in about $3.6 million in illegal profits.  

“We are shocked by this alleged breach of the law and violation of our own compliance policies and ethical standards,” said Peter Rose, spokesman for Blackstone.

The original acquisition, valued at $17.4 billion, included splitting up the Albertsons stores between a consortium of buyers, including Supervalu, drugstore chain CVS and the New York-based Cerberus. 

At that time, Albertson’s Inc. was the nation’s second-largest supermarket chain.  The SEC is alleging that the Blackstone team, led by Chakrapani, advised Albertson’s on the deal.

Julie Scuderi
Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net
Email: julie@hedgeco.net

HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Be sure to check out our sister sites. www.hedgefundlounge.com, www.hedgefundtools.com, and www.hedgefundemployment.com

Tags: accredited-investors, albertson, albertsons, blackstone group, compliance policies, cvs, drugstore chain, group executive, hedgeco, illegal-profits, insider trading, private equity firm, private equity firm cerberus, securities-and-exchange-commission, sister-sites, supermarket chain, supervalu