Ex-McKinsey Partner Pleads Guilty to GreenSky Insider Trading Charges

Ex-McKinsey partner Puneet Dikshit, 40, has pled guilty to securities fraud, CNBC writes. 

Dikshit reportedly made bets ahead of the Goldman Sachs acquisition of FinTech GreenSky for $2.2 billion. 

Dikshit had been accused of insider trading last month, with the charge being that he used info he got from his advising of Goldman on the deal to place bets just two days before the acquisition. 

That reportedly got him over $450,000. 

Dikshit’s securities fraud plea comes with a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, with his sentencing scheduled to happen March 30. 

“Barely a month after he was charged, Puneet Dikshit admitted in court today that he used his access to material nonpublic information about a pending acquisition of GreenSky, Inc., to trade in GreenSky call options,” Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Wednesday in a statement. 

Financial crime has continued during the pandemic, and PYMNTS writes that Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has been looking to curb fraud coming from shell companies. 

Read more: FinCEN Proposes Rule to Fight Illicit Finance, Boost Corporate Transparency

The agency said these types of fraud could discredit the U.S.’s national security and economic fairness and integrity. 

The proposal from FinCEN lays out who has to report beneficial ownership information, along with when they have to report and what info they need. 

“FinCEN is taking aggressive aim at those who would exploit anonymous shell corporations, front companies, and other loopholes to launder the proceeds of crimes, such as corruption, drug and arms trafficking, or terrorist financing,” acting FinCEN Director Himamauli Das said. 

In October, Goldman Sachs closed a second billion-dollar SPAC deal with Mirion Technologies, a nuclear measurement and analytics firm.

More info: Goldman Sachs Aims to Create SPAC ‘Franchise’

PYMNTS wrote that this represented Goldman’s trend of changing the lagging SPAC market, aligning investor interests with insiders. 

In many cases with SPACs, sponsors get 20% of the total shares outstanding following an IPO, for free. Goldman’s deal with Mirion would only have the money going to sponsors when shares are up more than 20%.