Insider Trading Ring Started Over Paris Lunch Made $17 Million, US Says
Michelin-starred meals, Vienna cash bag and burner phones central to Justice Department charges
The Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
Photographer: Nathan Laine/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
An alleged international insider trading conspiracy that US officials say yielded millions of dollars in illegal profits all started over a Michelin starred meal at a Paris restaurant owned by an ex-Merrill Lynch investment banker.
In November 2016, day trader Eamma Safi asked his Facebook contact Zhi Ge to travel from Italy to meet him and an owner of the restaurant, Samy Khouadja. “Friday you will be welcomed to our world of business,” Safi told Ge in a message sent just ahead of their lunch, according to a US indictment made publicly available this month.