A former executive with Bristol-Myers Squibb has admitted to trading on inside information regarding a public company that BMS was in the process of acquiring.
Robert Ramnarine, 46, of East Brunswick, N.J., pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson in Trenton, New Jersey federal court to an information charging him with securities fraud.
Ramnarine was represented by Douglas Jensen, a partner at Park & Jensen in New York.
Ramnarine was employed by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) from 1997 to August 2012.
From March 2008 on, he held a variety of high-level, executive positions at the company, including director of Pensions and Savings Investments (March 2008-June 2011), executive director of Pensions and Savings Investments (June 2011-July 2012), and assistant treasurer for Capital Markets (July 2012-August 2012).
As a result of these positions, Ramnarine was involved in evaluating potential acquisition targets for Bristol Meyers Squibb, including publicly traded companies, and was privy to inside company information concerning such transactions.
He was legally banned from disclosing confidential information and material, nonpublic information he learned through his employment or from using such information for his personal benefit or the benefit of others.
Federal officials alleged that during May and June 2012, Ramnarine, traded on material, nonpublic information regarding the company’s anticipated acquisition of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., a publicly traded company.
The material, nonpublic information available to Ramnarine enabled him to reap substantial profits by engaging in lucrative trading in stock options of Amylin shortly before BMS announced its plans to acquire Amylin in late June 2012.
As part of his plea, Ramnarine admitted that for purposes of sentencing his relevant criminal conduct includes $311,361 in illicit gains he made from trading in stock options of not only Amylin, but also several other BMS acquisition targets – ZymoGenentics Inc. and Pharmasset Inc., a company for which BMS submitted a bid through a confidential auction process, but which was subsequently acquired by Gilead Sciences.
Ramnarine faces a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $5 million.
Sentencing is scheduled for September 26, 2013.