A former mergers and acquisitions lawyer with top firms including Latham & Watkins and
Goodwin Procter pleaded not guilty to charges that he led a massive insider trading ring that made tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits.
Nicolo Nourafchan entered his plea Monday during a court appearance in federal c
ourt in Boston. His brother, Lorenzo Nourafchan, and more than a dozen other defendants also pl
eaded not guilty on Monday. Around 30 people have been charged with participating in the ring.
According to two indictments, as well as a parallel suit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nicolo Nourafchan, a 2011 Yale Law School graduate,
misappropriated confidential information on prospective M&A deals from three large firms at which he worked from 2013 to 2023. He allegedly conspired with a c
ollege classmate, Robert Yadgarov, to recruit other corporate lawyers to provide tips.
Nourafchan and Yadgarov then allegedly provided those tips to a network of relatives, fr
iends, classmates and associates. Authorities allege the defendants went to great lengths to
conceal their activity, using burner phones, encrypted applications and clandestine meetings.
They also discussed the tips in code, referring to them as airline “flights” and discussing the up
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coming public disclosure of merger plans as dates on which a “rabbi” was scheduled for surgery, according to prosecutors.
“I really need to know when the rabbi is scheduled for surgery,” one defendant allegedly wrot
e in a text several weeks before Amazon.com Inc.’s August 2022 announcement that it would acquire Roomba maker iRobot Corp., writing again days later, “How’s the rabbi?”
The law firms from whom information was allegedly stolen included Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Latham, Goodwin, Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
Gabriel Gershowitz, a former lawyer at Willkie and Weil Gotshal who went to college with Nourafcha
n and Yadgarov, is one of eight people who have pleaded guilty in the case and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
The Nourafchans and their lawyers declined to comment after Monday’s court appearance, as did the majority of the defendants who also appeared.
Michael Kendall, a lawyer for one of the defendants, Joseph Suskind, an insurance adjuster from
Florida who allegedly made $3 million trading on tips about more than a half-dozen deals, said his client is innocent.
“Evidence is more important than press releases,” Kendall said. “We look forward to the trial.”
According to prosecutors, Suskind eagerly anticipated tips on new deals. One one occasion, he a
llegedly messaged a fellow conspirator, “Where ma deals at.” On another occasion, Suskind allegedly wrote the same person, “Yo guy. Gimme the scoop. Gimme that crack.”
The defendants face as much as 25 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges against them.
The cases are US v. Fejal, 26-cr-10133, and US v. Nourafchan, 26-cr-10115, US District Court, District of Massachusetts.
