The U.S. government has charged a vice president at Goldman Sachs with securities fraud for allegedly using information about the investment bank’s clients to make more than $140,000 from illegal trades.
The Justice Department charged Woojae “Steve” Jung with six counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy, according to documents unsealed Thursday in federal court. Jung is a Korean citizen who worked in Goldman’s San Francisco office, according to government officials. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also filed a civil suit alleging securities law violations.
The government said that Jung attempted to conceal his insider trading by using a brokerage account held in the name of a friend in South Korea. The alleged scam ran from 2015 through 2017, according to the government.
“Jung tried to insulate himself by allegedly placing trades in the brokerage account of a friend who lived overseas,” said Joseph G. Sansone, Chief of the SEC’s Market Abuse Unit. “Like others before him, Jung’s alleged scheme failed when our data analysis uncovered the account’s suspicious trading pattern and, despite Jung’s attempts at evasion, traced the trading back to him.
Jung has worked for Goldman since 2012, according to his Linkedin page. He graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 2012. Prior to Wharton, he worked at McKinsey & Co., according to his Linkedin page.
Vice presidents at U.S. investment banks tend to be mid-level employees, above the ranks of analysts and associates but below directors, managing directors, and partners.
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