Thirty People Charged in Alleged Decade-Long Insider Trading Scheme Involving Lawyers

Nicolo Nourafchan, Robert Yadgarov and Lorenzo Nourafchan each entered not guilty pleas in federal court in Boston on charges of securities fraud and related offenses. The three appeared among thirty people charged in connection with a scheme prosecutors said lasted a decade and produced tens of millions of dollars in illicit gains.

The scheme began in 2014, shortly after Nicolo Nourafchan graduated from Yale Law School and joined Sidley Austin.

Prosecutors said he later worked at Latham & Watkins and Goodwin Procter while passing information about upcoming corporate transactions to Yadgarov and others in exchange for kickbacks from trading profits. Yadgarov, a personal injury attorney, and Nourafchan recruited additional lawyers to supply tips, including one employed at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and another who worked at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Gabriel Gershowitz, the latter attorney, pleaded guilty last year and is cooperating with prosecutors.

Guilty pleas from eight other defendants dating back to 2024 were unsealed on May 6, the same day prosecutors announced the case. ” Lorenzo Nourafchan, founder of a fractional CFO and accounting firm, is covering his brother’s legal fees. ” Joseph Suskind, a Florida resident in the insurance adjusting business, was charged with trading in 2022 on nonpublic information about SailPoint’s agreement to be acquired by Thoma Bravo and iRobot’s later-abandoned deal with Amazon.

His attorney, Michael Kendall, told reporters, “Evidence is more important than press releases.