A former Pfizer Inc. employee was found guilty of insider trading on Thursday, according to federal prosecutors, for purchasing stock options in November 2021, just prior to the company’s announcement of clinical trial results for the COVID antiviral drug Paxlovid.
Hillsborough, New Jersey’s 44-year-old Amit Dagar was found guilty by a federal jury in Manhattan on one count of securities fraud, according to prosecutors. The day before the pharmaceutical company declared Paxlovid to have performed well in trial, on November 4, 2021, prosecutors charged Dagar with trading and tipping a friend.
The verdict serves as a cautionary tale for “intellectual traders enticed by the promise of easy money,” according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
Not immediately responding to a request for comment was an attorney representing Dagar.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s parallel civil complaint against Dagar and his friend Atul Bhiwapurkar says that Dagar was a senior statistical program lead for the Paxlovid drug trial.
October marked the guilty plea of Bhiwapurkar to securities fraud.
Maximum sentences for the offenses are twenty years; however, the judge would likely impose sentences that are significantly shorter, taking into consideration a variety
of factors.
