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Monday, January 11, 2010

Canadian lawyer jailed over $9m of insider trading scams

A lawyer in Canada has been sentenced to 39 months in prison after a court found him guilty of being involved in an insider trading ring.

Stan Grmovsek, a former lawyer, pleaded guilty to committing crimes with a school friend using insider information which helped earn the pair $9 million over a 14 year period.

Mr Grmovsek’s accomplice, Gil Cornblum, committed suicide days before the pair were due to plead guilty to the charges in October 2009.

The duo obtained confidential information while working as lawyers across the US and Canada to inform their business decisions.

Mr Grmovsek’s sentence is thought to be the longest given for such an offence in Canada.

Kelley McKinnon, a securities lawyer with Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP and former deputy director of enforcement with the Ontario Securities Commission, told the Globe and Mail: “This is a critical precedent that changes the stakes in future cases and should act as a meaningful deterrent.”

Mr Cornblum practiced at Sullivan & Cromwell and was a partner at Dorsey & Whitney between 1994 and 2008.

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