U.s. Judge Orders Arrest of Ex - Fund employee who skipped trial January 23, 2017

U.S. judge orders arrest of ex-fund employee who skipped trial January 23, 2017 A U.S. judge ordered the arrest of a former analyst at Dell Inc founder Michael Dell's investment fund on Monday after he refused to show up for trial to face charges that he made $1.5 million engaging in insider trading. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan issued a bench warrant for John Afriyie, a former MSD Capital employee, after a defense lawyer, Ezra Spilke, said that his client was in New Jersey and would not agree to come to court. "He is going to need to bring his toothbrush," Engelmayer said in court. "Under the circumstances, while I will be happy to hear argument for bail when he is picked up, his non-appearance and non-willingness to appear is a bad fact." The judge said the he still planned to have the trial go forward later in the day. Afriyie had been free on a $200,000 bond since his initial arrest in April 2016 in what was one of the latest insider trading cases to be announced by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office. Prosecutors said that in early 2016, Afriyie learned about plans by Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N) to acquire security company ADT Corp after the private equity firm approached MSD to discuss providing debt financing for the deal. After he and other MSD employees were emailed about a restriction imposed on trading in ADT stock, Afriyie accessed a shared folder on MSD's network server and obtained information about Apollo's pending deal, prosecutors said. He then bought ADT call options for $24,254 through a brokerage account in his mother's name, enabling him to earn $1.53 million when the transaction was announced, prosecutors said. Afriyie has pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud and wire fraud. The case is U.S. v. Afriyie, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-cr-337. ...