Evanston Woman Accused Of Insider Trading On Over $280K Of Stock

EVANSTON, IL — An Evanston woman faces a federal criminal charge over insider trading allegations. According to prosecutors and market regulators, she illegally purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock after learning confidential information about her husband's job at a drug company in Deerfield.

Denise Grevas, 60, was charged with one count of securities fraud in federal court in Chicago Wednesday. She also faces a two-count civil suit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed the same day.

The allegations involve a corporate takeover in the pharmaceutical industry two years ago, according to court filings from the SEC and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

At the time, Grevas' husband worked as a senior manager in the human resources division of the multinational pharmaceutical company Lundbeck, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with its primary North American offices in Deerfield.

On Aug. 19, 2019, her husband learned about Lundbeck's confidential acquisition of Alder BioPharmaceuticals, a publicly traded Bothell, Washington-based company that developed drugs for migraine headaches, according to the feds.

Grevas managed five brokerage accounts, including one with her parents and one in the name of her aunt, according to the filing from securities regulators.

"During the relevant period," SEC attorney Richard Stoltz alleged, "Grevas did not work outside of her home and spent her time actively trading stocks on a daily basis. She regularly watched television programs about securities trading, read financial literature, and closely followed certain biopharmaceutical stocks."

During a phone call with Grevas, shortly after the meeting where he learned about the deal, her husband "blurted out Alder's name" while complaining about the extra work he would have to do, according to Stoltz.

"Grevas knew that [her husband] expected that she would maintain of the confidentiality of any material nonpublic information she obtained from him, and understood that she could not use or share confidential information she obtained or learned from [her husband] that had been entrusted to [him] through his employment with [Lundbeck,]" Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Madden said in the charging document.

Authorities said Grevas immediately began buying shares of Alder on the correct assumption they would rise when news of the acquisition became public.

Between Aug. 19 and Sept. 13, Grevas bought 30,800 shares across the five accounts she controlled at prices between $9.46 and $10.13, spending at least $280,787.

On Sept. 16, Lundbeck and Alder announced the $1.95 billion takeover deal. The stock closed that day at $18.50.

According to the SEC complaint, Grevas' husband did not know about his wife's insider trading, and only learned of the purchases during a phone call after the public announcement.

"[He] became upset with Grevas, telling her that she should not have traded in Alder stock because he was an insider and knew about the acquisition," Stoltz alleged.

Grevas sold 20,600 of the shares on Sept. 16, leading to an illegal profit of about $287,000, and sold the other 10,200 shares four days later for an unspecified amount.

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to order Grevas to turn over the $286,960 upon her conviction.

Grevas' husband resigned from Lundbeck in 2020, according to the SEC.

Prosecutors chose to charge Grevas via a one-count information filing covering a single order of just 100 shares of Alder stock — an indication that they have already made arrangements to resolve the case with a guilty plea.

A conviction for securities fraud can be punished by anything from probation to 20 years in federal prison.

Court records do not yet list an attorney for Grevas. According to prosecutors, an arraignment has yet to be scheduled in the case.