U.S. Unseals Indictment Charging 8 in Alleged Global Insider-Trading Ring

Overview

• A superseding indictment in Boston charges eight foreign nationals with two counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, two counts of securities fraud, and a money laundering conspiracy.
• Prosecutors allege leaders Samy Fadi Khouadja, Eamma Safi, and Zhi Ge ran the network from 2016 to 2024 by recruiting corporate insiders and traders across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, generating tens of millions of dollars.
• The indictment cites trading ahead of major deals, including AstraZeneca’s planned purchase of Alexion, LVMH’s bid for Tiffany, and Stryker’s pursuit of Wright Medical.
• Charging documents describe burner phones, encrypted disappearing messages, coded language, shell companies, and sham invoices, and allege MNPI was sometimes fed to journalists to profit once news published, with many trades routed through a Massachusetts automated exchange.
• Safi was extradited from Switzerland and is in U.S. custody, Ge was provisionally arrested in Singapore and remains in extradition proceedings, the other defendants are considered fugitives, and the SEC and FINRA assisted the investigation.