Former Netflix engineer and accomplice sentenced to prison for insider trading
By Ramishah Maruf, CNN Business
A former Netflix software engineer and his best friend were sentenced Friday for securities fraud, the US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington announced.
Their roles in an insider trading ring illegally generated more than $3 million, US attorney Nick Brown said.
Sung Mo Jun, 49, was sentenced to two years in prison and a $15,000 fine. His co-conspirator Junwoo Chon, 50, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and a $10,000 fine. Both are from Bellevue, Washington and pleaded guilty in August. CNN has reached out to attorneys for Jun and Chon for comment.
“For people in the high-tech industry, they will clearly know that there are consequences — including prison time — for this activity,” US District Judge Richard A. Jones said.
Insider trading is the buying or selling of a company’s securities with information not available to the public. It is illegal in the United States.
Brown, the US attorney, said in a press release both men were financially secure and had well-paying jobs, but “greed drove them to break the law to increase their own wealth.”
According to case records, Jun worked at Netflix from July 2016 to February 2017, during which time he shared confidential subscriber data with his brother, Joon Jun, and with Chon.
After leaving Netflix, Sung Mo Jun continued sharing information and began making trades himself using data received from another Netflix software engineer, Ayden Lee, case records showed.
Jun is forfeiting $495,188 to the US government and Chon is forfeiting $1,582,885. Both must complete 50 hours of community service and will be on one year of supervised release after they are released from prison.
“What I did was foolish, wrong, illegal…. I have no excuse. I disappointed many people,” Sung Mo Jun told the court at his sentencing.
The other two conspirators, Joon Jun and Lee, will be sentenced next year.
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