Insider trading is a criminal act that does not spare even the most prestigious of professionals. This was reiterated when a former attorney from Top 10 Biglaw firm, Romera Cabral Da Costa Neto, found himself at the center of an insider trading scandal.
The 33-year-old Brazilian started working as a visiting attorney at Gibson Dunn in September 2022. Costa stands charged with accessing confidential client information from within Gibson Dunn’s internal filing system to facilitate trades ahead of a significant pharmaceutical M&A deal. The National Law Journal provides more details on this matter.
During his one year with Gibson Dunn, Costa allegedly accessed classified data regarding the firm’s involvement with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB’s acquisition of CTI BioPharma Corp (CTIC). Although Costa wasn’t directly involved in the deal, he is accused of purchasing and later selling over 10,000 shares of CTIC the day before the public announcement of the deal, yielding profits upwards of $42,000.
Further allegations from an SEC complaint state that Costa also traded on additional non-public deal information extracted from Gibson Dunn’s document management system. Nicholas P. Grippo, Regional Director of the SEC’s Philadelphia Regional Office, addressed this issue with a stern statement, stressing on the prompt action taken by the SEC in responding to such acts of insider trading.
Gibson Dunn, collaborating with the authorities in the investigation, severed ties with Costa in the wake of these allegations. An official spokesperson clarified – “We are cooperating with authorities and have terminated our relationship with the individual, who was an international visiting attorney from another law firm.”
As we await further updates on Costa’s alleged insider trading charges, this case serves as an emphatic reminder that breaches in ethical and legal conduct can hold grave consequences, regardless of one’s professional status.