BUSTED

Pfizer Employee Used Secret COVID Info for Insider Trading, Feds Say

The employee and a friend allegedly used confidential info about trials of the drug paxlovid to rake in tens of thousands of dollars.

The Department of Justice has indicted a Pfizer employee and his friend for allegedly using non-public knowledge related to a then-experimental COVID-19 treatment to conduct insider trading. According to the DOJ, Amit Dagar leared on Nov. 4, 2021 that the results of confidential trials of paxlovid, a medicine to treat COVID, had been positive. He allegedly tipped off his friend, Atul Bhiwapurkar, as well as another unnamed individual, and they all made purchases in Pfizer stock. The next day, the results were made public and the company’s stock price shot up. The trio allegedly sold their Pfizer call options shortly after, raking in more than $350,000 in profits. The Securities and Exchange Commission said they were caught through surveillance. Dagar and Bhiwapurkar face charges including securities fraud, each carrying a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.