Goldman Sachs Banker Admits Involvement in Insider Trading Ring

9 January 2020: Former Goldman Sachs banker, Bryan Cohen, has pleaded guilty to insider trading as part of a wider plot that allegedly generated tens of millions of dollars in illicit profits. 

Cohen is the latest in a line up of seven former Goldman employees to be convicted of insider trading. He has admitted that, between 2015 and 2017, he stole confidential information about prospective deals and passed it to a trader in Switzerland in return for cash and other perks. When Cohen was arrested in October 2019, federal agents reportedly found more than $24,000 in cash inside a sunglasses case.  It is thought that Cohen was part of a global insider-trading ring. 

In accepting responsibility for his conduct, Cohen will avoid trial. Speaking on his behalf, Cohen’s attorneys said that they were “hopeful” that Judge William Pauley would see that he “is a fundamentally decent young man who should be sentenced in a relatively lenient fashion.” Goldman Sachs itself has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case.