New York adviser sentenced to six months for insider trading

Tibor Klein, a Long Island, N.Y., investment adviser, was sentenced to six months in prison on Monday after pleading guilty to insider trading in connection with Pfizer Inc's $3.6 billion acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2010. U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack sentenced Mr. Klein, 44, in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., according to a Reuters report. Last July, Mr. Klein had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Mr. Klein, the founder of Valley Stream, N.Y.-based Klein Financial Services, also was sentenced to six months of house arrest and 250 hours of community service, according to Reuters, and ordered to forfeit $37,225 and pay a $20,000 fine. The government said Mr. Klein learned about the deal from Robert Schulman, then a partner at the law firm Hunton & Williams in Washington, who had represented King Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Klein purchased shares in King for himself, Mr. Schulman and clients, and informed a friend, Michael Shechtman, a Florida stockbroker, about the deal. Prosecutors say the insider trading resulted in more than $400,000 of overall illegal profit. Mr. Schulman, of McLean, Va., was convicted of insider trading last March. Mr. Shechtman, a former broker at Ameriprise, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn in November 2014 to conspiracy and has cooperated with prosecutors. He has not been sentenced. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges against Mr. Klein and Mr. Shechtman in September 2013, but that case was put on hold until the criminal case was resolved.