Former U.S. congressman charged with insider trading

Former Indiana Rep. Stephen Buyer was arrested Monday in his home state on charges of alleged insider trading. 

Prosecutors allege that Buyer in 2018 – about seven years after serving in Congress – purchased large amounts of Sprint stock the day after a golf outing with a T-Mobile executive who told Buyer about his company’s not-yet-public plans to acquire Sprint, a rival telecom company. 

The trade resulted in the former GOP congressman making $350,000.

Buyer served as a Republican congressman from 1993 until 2011. During that time, he served on the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, which granted him oversight of communications companies such as the two featured in the questionable trade. 

“When insiders like Buyer – an attorney, a former prosecutor and a retired congressman — monetize their access to material, nonpublic information, as alleged in this case, they not only violate the federal securities laws, but also undermine public trust and confidence in the fairness of our markets,”  said SEC Enforcement Division Director Gurbir Grewal. 

Federal prosecutors Monday also charged nine other individuals in unrelated insider trading cases that resulted in millions worth of profits. 

Grewal promised to be “relentless in rooting out crime in our financial markets” at a Monday news conference. He “intended to send an equally strong message to the investing public” that regulators are keeping their commitment to maintain clean markets.