A federal jury has convicted a California man this week for insider trading. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Shahriyar Bolandian, 35, of Brentwood, Los Angeles, participated in an insider trading scheme that netted more than $650,000 in illicit profits. Between 2012 and 2013, Bolandian received material non-public information about two upcoming corporate acquisitions from his childhood friend, who was an investment banking analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. Bolandian then used the inside information to trade in advance of the public announcements of Integrated Device Technology Inc.’s April 2012 planned acquisition of PLX Technology Inc., and Salesforce.com Inc.’s June 2013 acquisition of ExactTarget Inc. As a result of his illegal trades, Bolandian personally made over $340,000, which he used, among other things, to cover previous trading losses and repay loans to family and friends.

The jury convicted of Bolandian of six counts of insider trading. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California; and Acting Assistant Director in Charge Mehtab Syed of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office made the announcement.

Jeffrey Newman is a whistleblower lawyer whose firm represents whistleblowers in healthcare fraud cases under the False Claims Act (FCA) and also under the Securities and Exchange, FINCEN and CFTC whistleblower programs. He can be reached at Jeff@JeffNewmanLaw.com or at 617-823-3217