CHICAGO — A suburban Chicago woman admitted in federal court today that she used insider information obtained from her husband to purchase shares of a company ahead of its acquisition by the husband’s employer.
DENISE GREVAS, 60, of Evanston, pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber set sentencing for Feb. 23, 2022.
The guilty plea was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a civil enforcement action against Grevas, provided valuable assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared Hasten and Jason Yonan represent the government in the criminal case.
Grevas admitted in a plea agreement that in 2019 she made $286,960 in illegal profits from the purchase and sale of securities in a Washington state-based pharmaceutical company, which was a target for acquisition and later acquired by an overseas-based pharmaceutical company that had an office in Deerfield, Ill., and employed Grevas’s husband. Grevas used material, non-public information about the expected acquisition to purchase shares in the Washington company ahead of a public announcement of the acquisition on Sept. 16, 2019. After the announcement, the Washington company’s stock price increased and Grevas sold her shares for the profit, the plea agreement states.
