Former Pfizer Employee Arrested for Insider Trading Using Confidential Information On Covid-19 Drug
An ex-Pfizer employee and his close friend were arrested Thursday afternoon for an insider trading scheme that could land the men in prison for decades.
Prosecutors allege Amit Dagar, 44, leaked inside information on the clinical trials of the Covid-19 drug Paxlovid in order to receive illegal profits from trading.
The DOJ reported on November 4, 2021, Dagar received information that Pfizer’s Paxlovid drug received positive results in its clinical trials phase.
After gaining the knowledge Dagar “purchased short-dated, out-of-the-money call options in Pfizer stock.”
He then tipped his friend Atul Bhiwapurkar about the positive results of the trials and Atul also bought Pfizer call options.
On the next day Pfizer’s stock shot up 10% due to the results of the Paxlovid trials and Dagar along with Bhiwapurkar both sold their stock to amass close to $350,000.
