SEC Sues Israelis Tied to International Insider Trading Ring

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued two Israeli citizens linked to a sprawling international insider-trading ring.

Tomer Feingold, 40, and Dov Malnik, 42, were accused in a suit filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court of using tips on planned health care mergers to make more than $4 million in illegal profits.

The men were named in January trial testimony by Marc Demane Debih, a former Geneva-based trader who has admitted making more than $70 million from his role at the center of the ring. According to the SEC, Feingold and Malnik traded on information passed to them by Demane Debih, who is identified as “Trader A” in the agency's suit.

Demane Debih, 49, pleaded guilty in October to 38 insider trading-charges and agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities. In January, he testified as the government's star witness in the insider-trading trial of Telemaque Lavidas, the first defendant to face a U.S. jury after a multiyear government probe of the ring.

Lavidas, the son of the chief executive officer of Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., was convicted of passing tips about that company to Georgios Nikas, who then passed tips to Demane Debih, the Swiss trader testified.

Read More: Swiss Trader Set to Be Star Witness at U.S. Insider Trial

Daniel Brown, a New York lawyer who has previously represented Feingold and Malnik, didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment on the allegations.

The SEC alleges Demane Debih got the information he passed to Feingold and Malnik from Benjamin Taylor, 36, a former Moelis & Co. banker, and Darina Windsor, 32, formerly of Centerview Partners. Taylor and Windsor, who shared a London apartment, were charged by the U.S. in October. Neither is in U.S. custody. Taylor currently lives in France and Windsor in Thailand, according to the SEC.

Demane Debih told jurors in Lavidas's trial that he passed tips to Feingold and Malnik in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks. According to the SEC, Malnick once paid Demane Debih with a bag of cash and, on another occasion, with a luxury watch purchased in Los Angeles.

The case is U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Feingold, 20-cv-01881, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Anthony Lin, Peter Jeffrey

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