On January 15, 2020, a jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York found Telemaque Lavidas guilty of insider trading.
According to the superseding indictment and evidence presented at trial, Lavidas is the son of Athanase Lavidas, who served on the board of directors of Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company headquartered in Boston. According to the facts, between 2013 and 2015, Telemaque Lavidas conspired with his friend and co-defendant Georgios Nikas, to steal confidential inside information from Ariad and use the information for their own profit. On three occasions, Lavidas tipped Nikas, who is alleged to have reaped millions of dollars in profit from trades based on the material non-public information obtained through Lavidas, whom he paid for the information.
Lavidas was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of securities fraud under Title 15, one count of securities fraud under Title 18, and one count of wire fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for April 2020.
Lavidas and Nikas are among at least seven individuals indicated for participating in a global insider trading scheme. Two have pleaded guilty. Nikas remains at large.