The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged former Indiana Republican Representative Stephen Buyer with insider trading. He allegedly concealed some of the transactions using the accounts of his wife and mistress. 

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He was charged with insider trading on July 25, 2022 for allegedly purchasing shares of telecom giant Sprint before the company’s merger with T-Mobile, according to federal officials.

Buyer was born in Rensselaer, Indiana on November 26, 1958. He received his diploma from North White High School in 1976. He graduated with a B.S. from The Citadel, a South Carolina military college, in 1980, and a J.D. from the Valparaiso University School of Law in 1984. Between 1984 and 1987, Buyer performed three years on active duty in the Army. He worked as Indiana’s state deputy attorney general from 1987 to 1998 before beginning his own private law firm. At the age of 33, he was chosen to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1992.

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Former American lawmaker Stephen Earle Buyer represented Indiana’s 4th congressional district and formerly, the 5th district, in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2011. He is a Republican Party member. Buyer announced his departure from Congress on January 29, 2010. Buyer started working as a lobbyist for McKesson Corp in January of the following year. Since he was unable to lobby Congress due to a one-year “cooling off” period required by federal law for all retiring Congressmen, he declared that his lobbying would be limited to the executive branch. Buyer began working for R.J. Reynolds in 2012, where he promoted the usage of smokeless tobacco.

Buyer faced insider trading charges from the SEC on July 25, 2022. The SEC’s complaint claims that after leaving Congress in 2011, Buyer established the Steve Buyer Group, a consulting business that served T-Mobile among other clients. Buyer met a T-Mobile official at a golf outing in March 2018 and learned about the company’s at-the-time secretive acquisition of Sprint from the executive.

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The following day, Buyer started purchasing Sprint securities. Ahead of the announcement of the merger, he bought $568,000 worth of Sprint common stock in his own accounts, a joint account with his cousin, and an acquaintance’s account. When the deal became public in April 2018, Buyer immediately made a profit of more than $107,000.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Buyer purchased more than $1 million of Navigant Consulting, Inc. securities ahead of the public announcement that it would be acquired by another one of Buyer’s consulting clients, Guidehouse LLP. Buyer then sold nearly all of the shares he had bought across the multiple accounts in August 2019, on the day the Navigant acquisition was made public, and made a profit of over $227,000.

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Director of the SEC Enforcement Division, Gurbir S. Grewal said,” When insiders like Buyer – an attorney, a former prosecutor, and a retired Congressman – monetize their access to material, nonpublic information, as alleged in this case, they not only violate the federal securities laws, but also undermine public trust and confidence in the fairness of our markets”. He further added,” We are committed to doing all we can to maintain and enhance public trust by leveling the playing field and holding Buyer accountable for illegally profiting from his access.”

Buyer’s attorney Andrew Goldstein, told CNBC, “Congressman Buyer is innocent. His stock trades were lawful. He looks forward to being quickly vindicated.”