SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state man who admitted using inside information from his wife about Amazon to trade the company’s stock has been sentenced to 26 months in prison.
Viky Bohra, 37, received the sentence Thursday for illegally trading Amazon stock after pleading guilty last year to securities fraud, said Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman.
Bohra admitted he made profits of $1.4 million between 2016 and 2018 with information provided by his wife, Gorman said.
She had access to confidential information about Amazon revenue and expenses and because of her work, the couple was subject to blackout periods when no stock could be traded, prosecutors said. Despite that restriction, Bohra conducted trades during blackout periods, the prosecutors said.
Bohra’s wife, Laksha Bohra, will not face charges as a result of her husband’s plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
Boyra and his family have paid $2.6 million in penalties and interest in the case. Because of those payments, the federal government won’t seek forfeiture, Gorman said.
Laksha Bohra started her work with the company as a transfer pricing manager in Amazon’s tax department in December 2012 and was promoted to senior manager in May 2018, according to court records.
She had access to Amazon’s financial reporting databases and shared network files, was suspended from her job in October 2018 and resigned soon after that, court records said.
Ian Allen-Anderson, a spokesman for Amazon, declined to comment on the case Friday.
Gorman characterized the insider trading as unbridled greed.
“This defendant and his wife were earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and bonuses from their jobs in tech – but he was not content with that – greedily scheming to illegally profit by trading Amazon stock,” Gorman said in statement.
She added: “This case should stand as a warning to those who try to game the markets with insider trading: there is a heavy price to pay with a felony conviction and prison sentence.”
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