US charges ex-Goldman employee with insider trading

New York: US securities regulators have filed charges against an ex-Goldman Sachs information technology employee who allegedly made more than USD 460,000 in illegal insider trades before fleeing to China, officials announced Wednesday.

Yue Han, 30, pocketed the money after trading stock options on four companies advised by Goldman investment bankers on impending buyout offers, according to charges filed Tuesday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Shares of the four companies -- Yodlee, Zulily, Rentrak and KLA-Tencor -- jumped when takeovers were announced.

Han gained access to bankers' email accounts because his job entailed developing surveillance software designed to monitor other employees for misconduct such as insider trading.

Han, a Chinese national, worked at Goldman from December 2014 to October 2015. He left New York City on October 22 for Shanghai, where he is believed to reside, the SEC said.

"We allege that Han's employer gave him access to confidential information so that he could help the firm detect and deter illegal activity, but he betrayed that trust by using the information for his own profit," said Joseph Sansone, co-chief of the SEC enforcement division's market-abuse unit.

The SEC said it had obtained a federal court order freezing assets linked to Han.