A former Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) pension executive who padded his own accounts with insider trading tied to BMS takeover targets could be at retirement age himself when he gets out of prison.
The FBI said Monday that Robert Ramnarine, 46, the drugmaker's assistant treasurer for capital markets, pleaded guilty to securities fraud. Ramnarine faces up to 20 years in prison and up to a $5 million fine after earning himself more than $310,000 trading on inside information. The government said Ramnarine bought options in ZymoGenetics, Pharmasset and Amylin Pharmaceuticals ($AMLN). Bristol-Myers bought ZymoGenetics in 2010 and Amylin in June; it pulled out of buyout talks for Pharmasset, which Gilead Sciences ($GILD) ended up getting in an $11.2 billion deal. Ramnarine worked for BMS from 1997 to 2012 and was responsible for doing due diligence on the companies' pension and savings plans.
A number of insider trading investigations in the last year have been tied to Big Pharma and biotech investments that make what Ramnarine snagged look like peanuts. In April it leaked out that the Securities and Exchange Commission's insider trading team had launched a civil investigation into stock trades by former Dendreon ($DNDN) CEO Mitchell Gold. The probe is looking to figure out if he acted on inside information about disappointing Provenge sales and cashed in $4.3 million in shares in doing it.
In January, former portfolio manager for SAC Capital Mathew Martoma pleaded not guilty to charges that allege he got insider info on a major Alzheimer's program for bapineuzumab that benefited his firm to the tune of $276 million. The feds several years ago also made inquiries into other deals handled by firms including JANA Partners, Diamondback Capital Management and Balyasny Asset Management but Charles Penner, chief legal officer for JANA Partners told FiercePharma that those were not pursued.
- here's the FBI release
Editor's Note: The story was updated to reflect the fact that inquiries several years ago into other deals handled by a number of Wall Street firms, like JANA Partners, Diamondback Capital Management and Balyasny Asset Management are no longer active.