Damian Williams, the United States Legal professional for the Southern District of New York, announced nowadays that PUNEET DIKSHIT, a previous spouse in a world-wide administration consulting agency (the “Consulting Firm”), pled guilty to a person count of securities fraud in relationship with his plan to commit insider buying and selling dependent on substance, nonpublic information pertaining to the forthcoming public announcement that an financial investment financial institution (the “Investment Bank”) – which DIKSHIT and the Consulting Agency ended up advising – would be attaining GreenSky, Inc. (“GreenSky”). The defendant pled guilty in advance of U.S. District Decide Colleen McMahon.
U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams said: “Barely a month soon after he was billed, Puneet Dikshit admitted in court docket today that he applied his accessibility to substance nonpublic details about a pending acquisition of GreenSky, Inc., to trade in GreenSky get in touch with choices. This perform, which netted the defendant approximately 50 percent a million bucks in tainted gains, broke the regulation and violated the defendant’s responsibilities to his organization and its customer. Now Puneet Dikshit awaits sentencing for his admitted criminal offense.”
According to the allegations in the Complaint, Details, and statements made in public court docket proceedings:
GreenSky was a publicly traded economical technological innovation organization that furnished know-how to banks and retailers to make loans to customers for home advancement, photo voltaic, health care, and other purposes. GreenSky’s typical stock traded less than the symbol “GSKY” on the NASDAQ.
Involving on or about November 2019 and on or about July 2020, and again involving on or about April 2021 and on or about September 2021, the Expenditure Bank engaged the Consulting Organization to give various consulting companies associated to its thing to consider of an acquisition of GreenSky and the write-up-acquisition integration of GreenSky. DIKSHIT was 1 of the Consulting Organization companions main these engagements. In that purpose, he had access to substance nonpublic information and facts, which he misappropriated and, in violation of the duties that he owed to the Investment Financial institution and the Consulting Company, applied to trade GreenSky get in touch with choices.
DIKSHIT engaged in this trading among on or about July 26, 2021, and on or about September 15, 2021 – at the exact time he was primary the Consulting Business staff that was advising the Financial commitment Financial institution about its likely acquisition of GreenSky. At a variety of instances involving on or about July 26, 2021, and on or about September 13, 2021, DIKSHIT procured and bought fairly compact quantities of GreenSky call choices, which had expiration dates months or months from the time of obtain. However, in the two times ahead of the September 15, 2021, community announcement that the Investment decision Bank would be buying GreenSky, DIKSHIT offered all of these extended-dated GreenSky contact options and ordered about 2,500 out-of-the-income GreenSky contact possibilities that had been thanks to expire just a couple days later on, on September 17, 2021. After the deal to purchase GreenSky was announced, DIKSHIT sold these choices and understood gains of close to $450,000.
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DIKSHIT, 40, of New York, New York, pled responsible to one depend of securities fraud, which carries a most sentence of 20 decades in jail. The statutory highest sentence is recommended by Congress and presented right here for informational applications only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be decided by the decide. DIKSHIT is scheduled to be sentenced by Choose McMahon on March 30, 2022, at 2:00 p.m.
Mr. Williams praised the remarkable function of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Williams even more thanked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Fee for its guidance and cooperation in this investigation.
This situation is currently being handled by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Endeavor Pressure. Assistant United States Lawyers Joshua A. Naftalis and Matthew Podolsky are in charge of the prosecution.