Indicted hedge fund manager found dead in apparent suicide
Hedge fund manager Sanjay Valvani was found dead Monday in his New York City home after apparently committing suicide less than a week after his federal indictment, police confirmed Tuesday.
Valvani — who faced accusations that he conspired to profit off of insider information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — was "lying on the ground inside of a bedroom, unresponsive and unconscious" when emergency responders arrived around 6 p.m., New York Police Department detective Michael DeBonis said.
"At this point there does not appear to be any criminality suspected," DeBonis said.
Valvani, 44, of Brooklyn, was charged with five crimes, including two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and defraud the U.S. Four of the counts each carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, while one count carries a maximum sentence of five years.
Federal prosecutors had alleged that while employed as Visium Asset Management hedge fund managers, Valvani and Christopher Plaford executed stock trades based on insider information from consultant and former FDA official George Johnston about generic drug applications.
Valvani had surrendered to authorities Wednesday and was arraigned on charges before being released.
In one particularly egregious example of how the alleged conspiracy played out, Valvani directed Johnston to acquire information from his former FDA colleague about the fate of a drug candidate called enoxaparin, according to the government. Valvani then allegedly passed along the tip to Plaford and made trades based on the information, collecting about $25 million in ill-gotten profits, prosecutors said.
Plaford and Johnston have already pleaded guilty for their involvement in the alleged scheme, according to the indictments unsealed last week.
Follow Paste BN reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.