Former IT Exec Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading Conspiracy

A former IT executive at a NASDAQ-listed healthcare company is facing more than a quarter of a century behind bars after pleading guilty to insider trading and preparing a false tax return.

Dayakar Mallu, 51, of Orlando, Florida, admitted to conspiring with others to trade in the securities of Mylan, which is now a part of global healthcare firm Viatris.

Between 2017 and 2019, the former vice president of global operations information technology worked with another unnamed executive to secure non-public information in advance of public announcements from the firm.

According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), they used this info to place trades and then cashed out via Indian banks, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Mallu’s insider trading resulted in the former exec realizing net profits and losses avoided of more than $4.2m.

Mallu also admitted sending false information to his tax preparer relating to Opel Systems, a company that he owned and controlled, according to the DoJ.

He falsely told the third party that Opel had paid $1.3m to a contractor. In fact, Mallu directed Opel to transfer those funds to his personal securities brokerage account, according to court documents. Therefore, Mallu’s false statement resulted in the preparation of a false 2015 corporate return for Opel.

Mallu will be sentenced in January 2022 and will face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for conspiracy to commit securities fraud, plus three years for the tax offenses.

He’s by no means the first IT executive to find himself on the wrong side of the law. Last November, two eBay executives were indicted on charges of cyber-stalking, witness tampering and falsifying records.

In March last year, Anthony Levandowski, former tech lead at Google’s Waymo division, pleaded guilty to 33 counts of trade secrets theft related to his downloading of IP on self-driving cars before leaving the company.

However, he was subsequently pardoned by outgoing President Donald Trump.