The Firm’s White Collar Practice Group represented a prominent west coast trust company in connection with high profile SEC and Department of Justice investigations concerning a criminal insider trading conspiracy referred to as the “Circle of Friends.”  The Government investigations were initially focused on the use of “expert networking firms” which connect analysts and traders with public-company employees and other consultants seeking payments for information.  In what developed into an unprecedented level of insider-trading prosecutions, the Government alleged that fund managers and analysts at a number of prominent hedge funds and financial institutions obtained material, nonpublic information through sources at various technology companies and executed unlawful securities transactions in a nationwide conspiracy to commit securities fraud.  After a complex coordination of strategy in parallel proceedings, the Firm successfully negotiated a most favorable resolution of civil claims asserted against our client by the SEC and a complete avoidance of any criminal charges being filed by the DoJ.