Goldman Clears Banker Whose Boyfriend Stole Client Secrets And Traded On Them

After avoiding the insider trading spotlight in the wake of the financial crisis, a Goldman VP was charged in a complex insider trading scheme back in 2018.

Then early this year, former Goldman banker Bryan Cohen pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court for his role in another international insider-trading scheme. And of course, who could forget the former Goldman analyst who fed Super Bowl LII champion Mychal Kendricks secrets tied to illegal investments?

Goldman MD Zeynep Yenel

With the market ten years in to a historic bull run where any idiot with a TD Ameritrade account has been able to outperform most hedge funds simply by averaging in to an S&P 500 index fund, it’s difficult to imagine why anybody would need to cheat to try and lock in great returns.

And for once, it looks like a Goldman employee has actually been exonerated from suspicions of insider trading.

Goldman announced on Thursday that it found no wrongdoing was committed by a Managing Director whose boyfriend admitted to stealing company secrets from her ten years ago, then trading on the non-public information.

The boyfriend, Swiss trader Marc Demane Debih, has previously pleaded guilty to dozens of insider-trading charges, and he recently told a New York jury during testimony on Jan. 8 that he secretly got client data on three proposed mining- industry acquisitions from Goldman MD Zeynep Yenel, who was his girlfriend at the time.

Debih told the jury that back in 2010 or 2011, he stole information from Yenel without her knowledge, including MNPI on London Mining, Breakwater Resources and Copper Mountain Mining. Debih, who is cooperating with the government and testifying against others in order to reduce his time behind bars, testified that he traded on the Copper Mountain information and passed a tip on Breakwater to a friend.

After he made the revelation, Goldman said it would investigate. And now that investigation is finished.

“We identified no concerns about her conduct in relation to the statements made by Mr. Demane Debih,” Goldman Sachs spokeswoman Nicole Sharp said in a statement Thursday. Yenel “retains our full support and remains a valued senior member of the team,” Sharp said.

Now the Vampire Squid’s lawyers can focus on more important priorities, like negotiating a sweetheart settlement of the 1MDB case with the DoJ.