The 26-year-old former Goldman Sachs analyst from Long Island who has been indicted by the feds for insider trading after he allegedly shared confidential information with his childhood friends won a $1,000 prize at an ethics competition while in college.
Anthony Viggiano, a resident of the Nassau County hamlet of Baldwin, and three classmates who all attended the University of Tampa captured the award at an “ethics invitational” event in 2018, Bloomberg News reported.
The event focused on “practicing how to apply a decision-making framework to aid investment professionals in conducting business with integrity,” according to a newsletter published by the university’s business school.
Run by CFA Society Tampa Bay, the Ethics Invitational “is designed to help prepare the next generation of
investment professionals to face real-world ethical dilemmas by raising their awareness of professional ethics” while giving “an opportunity for teams to develop and exercise ethical decision-making skills.”
“Teams are given a case and must prepare a 5-minute video that demonstrates understanding and
application of ethical concepts to a professional situation,” according to the competition rules.
“Teams advancing to the final round will participate in a live question and answer session with the
panel of judges.”
Maxwell Grimard, the president of CFA Society Tampa Bay, told The Post that it’s “an unfortunate thing that a past participant now is involved in something that is counter to what they learned about.”
“It is ironic that past performance is no indication of future results,” he said.
The Post has sought comment from the University of Tampa.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan allege that Viggiano used his position as an analyst with his first employer, Blackstone, and Goldman Sachs to tip his friends off to upcoming mergers and acquisitions that would boost the stock price of the companies involved, according to court filings.
Viggiano allegedly used the encrypted app Signal and the Xbox video game console to feed confidential financial information to Christopher Salamone, 35, who grew up on the same block as his friend, according to legal filings.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan allege that the tips Viggiano fed to Salamone led to more than $300,000 in illicit gains, according to court documents.
After the FBI interviewed Viggiano and Salamone in June of last year, Salamone began recording conversations with Viggiano, who tried to assure his friend that authorities could not trace communications about the illicit stock tips, according to court papers.
Salomone, a Long Beach, LI, resident, has pleaded guilty to three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy. He is cooperating with investigators, according to the Justice Department.
Stephen Forlano, 27, a college buddy of Viggiano, is alleged to have pocketed around $114,000 from transactions that were made based on illegal tips that he received from his friend, court documents state.
The indictment filed last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission also names Nathan Bleckley, a 26-year-old US Army captain who also attended the University of Tampa alongside Forlano and Viggiano.
According to court papers, Bleckley, who is not facing criminal charges and is said to be cooperating with investigators, allegedly made around $25,000 based on tips that he received from Forlano.
While working as an analyst at Blackstone in 2021, Viggiano learned of plans by the investment firm to acquire assets from insurance giant American International Group (AIG).
Forlano allegedly acted on the tip and bought AIG stock. The announcement of the deal with Blackstone led AIG’s stock price to rise by more than 3.5%.
According to court papers, Forlano passed similar tips that he received from Viggiano to five friends and family members, who collectively made $110,000.
Viggiano faces nine securities fraud and conspiracy charges, while Forlano, of Tampa, Florida, faces four.
All four men also face related civil charges from the SEC.
Steven Brill, a lawyer for Viggiano, declined to comment.
Forlano’s lawyer Michael Bachner declined comment when reached by The Post.
Bleckley’s lawyer Todd Spodek told The Post: “Mr. Bleckley was not criminally charged, and has consented to the SEC’s partial judgment in this action in an effort to put this behind him.”
Salamone’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
In separate statements, Blackstone and Goldman said they were cooperating with authorities and had “zero tolerance” for the alleged misconduct, saying it violated their business standards. Blackstone added that Viggiano had a “non-investment” role at the firm.
With Post Wires
This story originally appeared on NYPost
