Westford Man Convicted Of Insider Trading

WESTFORD, MA – A Westford man who worked for a Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company was convicted of sharing the results of successful clinical drug trials with his friend in an insider trading scheme. Songjiang Wang, 54, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

His friend, 54-year-old Schultz "Jason" Chan, of Newton, also worked for a biopharmaceutical company in Cambridge. He was convicted of one county of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and three counts of securities fraud.

Authorities said Wang, the director of statistical programming at his company, and Chan, who served as director of biostatistics at a different company, traded insider information about successful drug trials from August 2013 to September 2015.

Wang traded on inside information Chan provided and tipped Chan off about the results of a Phase 3 clinical trial being conducted by his company, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Wang also gave Chan cash, which was used to purchase stock shares of Wang's company.

Chan ultimately sold those shares and paid Wang back.

The charge of securities fraud provides for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $5 million. The charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud provides for a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.

Sentencing for Wang has been scheduled for Oct. 5.

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