NJ friends used insider trading to make millions, take families on luxury vacations

✅ Christopher Matthaei pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud,
❗ Prosecutors say a friend’s secret merger tips helped him make up to $3.5 million.
➡️ He faces up to five years in prison and a fine that could reach $7 million.

RED BANK — A Monmouth County broker used a friend’s secret merger tips to make up to $3.5 million in stock profits, then took both families on a luxury trip to St. Bart’s, federal prosecutors say.

Christopher Matthaei, 48, of Brielle pleaded guilty to a federal count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in Trenton federal court on Thursday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Matthaei, a former partner at a firm in Red Bank, admitted to insider trading that made him up to $3.5 million, federal prosecutors said. Investigators found the fraud scheme centered around information Matthaei's friend fed to him about a special purpose acquisition company.

Matthaei faces up to five years in prison, and a monetary fine of up to twice the amount he made from the scheme — possibly $7 million in this case. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 25, 2027.

A dark screen shows market trends (Photo by Tötös Ádám on Unsplash)

Friend sent merger tips on an encrypted app, prosecutors say

Prosecutors say Matthaei conspired in 2020 with his close friend, Sean Wygovsky, to make millions. In May 2023, Wygovsky pleaded guilty to securities fraud in the same scheme.

In late May 2020, Wygovsky was a trader at an asset management company in Canada. He had access to confidential information about merger talks, prosecutors said.

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Using an encrypted messaging platform, Wygovsky sent that nonpublic information to Matthaei on May 28, 2020. Matthaei then used that information to make profits from stock trades over the next three weeks.

Prosecutors said Matthaei and Wygovsky used their ill-gotten gains to take their families on a three-week trip to a luxury resort on St. Bart's, an island in the Caribbean, where they continued their scheme. They spent extra to take a private plane. The next month, they went to Nantucket, Massachusetts.

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