Goldman insider trader gets three years in prison

An ex-investment banker at Goldman Sachs was sentenced to three years in prison for tipping off his squash partner about mergers and acquisitions activity in a yearslong scheme that illegally netted the friends a combined $280,000.

Manhattan District Court Judge P. Kevin Castel handed down the punishment to Goldman alum Brijesh Goel on Wednesday after a seven-day trial, ordering him to begin his sentence on Jan. 9.

Following his three-year prison term — which is six months less than what prosecutors had asked for — Goel will be under three years of supervised release, according to court filings.

The 39-year-old former Goldman vice president must also pay a $75,000 fine within 45 days and pay restitution to the investment bank, though the sum will be determined at a later date.

Goldman is seeking $390,000 in restitution from Goel, who illegally passed tips to Akshay Niranjan, a trader at Barclays, during squash games in 2017.

Goel, a Goldman banker from 2013 to 2021, and Niranjan became friends as graduate school classmates at the University of California, Berkeley, and used a code language that referenced their squash games — like  “Did you book the court?” — to coordinate trades, earlier court filings alleged.

Details of Goel and Niranjan’s close relationship were divulged in court, according to Bloomberg, including that when the friends weren’t playing squash, they did copious amounts of drugs together and attended music festivals.

Niranjan, who was the prosecution’s star witness against his friend, said he recorded conversations where Goel asked him to delete texts regarding the stock tips, per Bloomberg.

At trial, Goel tried to argue that he was set up by Niranjan, who was not charged.

Goel’s counsel argued that Niranjan should face similar charges.

Head of sentencing, Goel’s lawyers also said that he should face no jail time. An immediate deportation to his native India would be punishment enough, they told the judge, per Bloomberg.

Judge Castel reportedly dismissed Goel’s pleas to evade jail time because he failed to cooperate with law enforcement during the investigation — and even sought to throw out evidence — while Niranjan fully cooperated with law enforcement.

When he handed down the sentence, Castel told Goel: “You took the stand right in this chair and you lied again and again and again.”

In response, a teary-eyed Goel said he was “deeply ashamed of my actions,” according to Bloomberg.

The outlet reported that while flanked by his lawyers, wife, and friends in court on Wednesday, Goel added: “I apologize to Goldman Sachs, to my colleagues, everyone who felt betrayed by my actions.”

Prosecutors had said prison time was warranted because of the “gratuitous nature” of the crime.

“This was not a crime of desperation or of necessity,” the government said, according to Bloomberg.

“The defendant, for example, did not need to steal to feed his family. Instead, this was a crime of hubris — a crime born out of a sense that one is above the rules that others have to play by, the sense that one will not, or cannot, get caught.”

Most of the tips Goel passed off to Niranjan were related to deals Goel was privy to — companies including Lumos Networks, PharMerica Corporation, and Calgon Carbon. Niranjan bought call options on the companies, betting shares of the companies would go higher when deals were publicly announced.

Niranjan then executed trades on the information about upcoming deals and split the winnings with Goel, which amounted to roughly $280,000 — meaning each banker took home a share of about $140,000.

The amount likely pales in comparison to the salary Goel made at his day job. For reference, top-performing VPs at Goldman can haul in north of $800,000 in a good year. And at Apollo, compensation can swell well above $1 million.

Goel, who had left Goldman to take a lucrative job as principal at Apollo Global Management’s structured finance team in 2021, was placed on indefinite leave when the private equity firm learned of the investigation. He has since been fired.

Niranjan was also axed from Barclays, according to Bloomberg. On his LinkedIn page, it appears that he was let go in June 2022.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment.