The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to move for a default judgment against former Goldman Sachs’ compliance analyst Jose Luis Casero Sanchez. This becomes clear from a status report submitted by the regulator at the New York Southern District Court on January 14, 2022.
The document, seen by FX News Group, reveals that Commission staff and the parents of the analyst – Jose Luis Casero Abellan and Maria Isabel Sanchez Gonzalez , have reached a settlement agreement in principal. The Commission staff is taking the steps necessary to obtain Commission approval of the proposed settlement, which will resolve this matter as to Relief Defendants Abellan and Gonzalez. Let’s note that the parents of the defendant were involved in the insider trading scheme.
With respect to Jose Luis Casero Sanchez, the SEC has received a Clerk’s Certificate of Default, and expects to move the Court for default and remedies after the matter is resolved as to Abellan and Gonzalez. The default judgment usually includes specification of the penalties (fines, restitution, etc) to be imposed on the defendant.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Sanchez had broad access to highly sensitive information regarding mergers and other transactions in which his firm was involved, in connection with his work as a compliance analyst. Sanchez had access to this information so that he could assist the firm’s efforts to ensure that employees kept the information confidential and did not engage in insider trading.
However, between September 2020 and May 2021, Sanchez allegedly abused that position of trust by trading on at least 45 events involving the investment bank’s clients based on the investment bank’s material, nonpublic information. To avoid detection, Sanchez allegedly traded in multiple U.S.-based brokerage accounts held in the name of one of his parents—Jose Luis Casero Abellan and Maria Isabel Sanchez Gonzalez —and, in most instances, also refrained from placing large trades and made only modest profits.
The complaint alleges that Sanchez generated more than $471,000 in ill-gotten gains during the course of the scheme.
Sanchez is charged with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.