Former FBI Special Agent Trainee Pleaded Guilty to Insider Trading Scheme

On December 4, 2023, a former FBI Special Agent trainee pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud based on insider trading and agreed to pay $82,366 in forfeiture.  Seth Mark pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York.  According to court documents, Markin pleaded guilty to Count 2 of the Indictment, which stated that from on or about January 31, 2021, through on or about February 24, 2021, Markin and Brandon Wong, a non-DOJ individual, profited more than $1.4 million dollars in illegal profits by trading stock based on inside information that Markin misappropriated from his then-girlfriend, who was at the time an attorney at a major law firm in Washington, DC.  Markin allegedly obtained the inside information by secretly looking through his then-girlfriend’s confidential work documents, without her permission.  In total, Markin and Wong together caused at least 20 people to trade in stock based on material non-public information that Markin misappropriated from his then-girlfriend, resulting in millions of dollars of illegally obtained trading profits.  The investigation is being conducted by the OIG’s Northeast Region, the SEC, and the FBI.