U.S. federal prosecutors on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, announced charges against eight individuals accused of participating in an extensive insider trading network that generated tens of millions of dollars over several years.
The Boston U.S. Attorney’s Office said the scheme, which operated from 2016 to 2024, was orchestrated by Samy Khouadja, a former Merrill Lynch banker in France; Eamma Safi, who co-owned a French restaurant with Khouadja; and Singaporean citizen Zhi Ge.
Safi is currently in U.S. custody and pleaded not guilty earlier this year. Ge was provisionally arrested in Singapore in 2024 and is awaiting extradition proceedings. The remaining six defendants, including Khouadja, are considered fugitives, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Khouadja faces charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Attempts to reach defense lawyers were unsuccessful.
Prosecutors allege that Khouadja, Safi, and Ge recruited investment bankers and corporate insiders to provide confidential information regarding publicly traded companies. The defendants then traded on this information themselves and shared profits with other traders in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, who had also been recruited into the network.
The six other defendants named in the indictment include Christophe Dong (France), Julien Liu (France and Hong Kong), Patrick Chou (France and Hong Kong), Cheuk Yue Lee (Hong Kong), and Dev Ananth Durai (Singapore).
According to the indictment, the stolen insider information encompassed significant corporate developments, including AstraZeneca’s planned $39 billion acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals in 2020, LVMH’s 2019 attempt to acquire jeweler Tiffany, and Stryker’s acquisition plans for Wright Medical in the same year.
Prosecutors further alleged that the defendants leaked information to journalists to profit once the news became public. They employed “burner” phones and encrypted messaging apps to conceal their activities and used code words: money was referred to as “greens,” insider trading as “running,” pending deals as a “race,” and potential merger partners as “girls” or “models.”
