Ex-JPMorgan Executive Barred for Passing Friend Inside Tips

(Bloomberg) -- A former JPMorgan Chase executive was barred from the brokerage industry for allegedly passing inside information on corporate mergers to a friend, FINRA said.

David Michael Gutman, a vice president in the conflicts office at JPMorgan’s brokerage unit, shared tips on deals from March 2006 to October 2007 with Christopher John Tyndall, who then made trades based on the information, the brokerage industry’s self-regulator said in a statement today. Tyndall was also barred, FINRA said.

“David Gutman had the keys to the kingdom through his position at JPMorgan as a gatekeeper with special access to material, non-public information,” Cameron Funkhouser, a FINRA vice president, said in a statement.

Gutman tipped Tyndall, then a broker at New York-based Meyers Associates, to at least 15 pending corporate mergers and acquisitions, FINRA said. Tyndall then passed the information to 13 of his retail customers and invested personally in at least two securities, according to the complaint. The scheme generated more than $9 million in profits, FINRA said.

In settling the claims, Gutman and Tyndall didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing. Susan Brune, Gutman’s lawyer, declined to comment, as did JPMorgan spokesman Brian Marchiony. George Meierhofer, a lawyer for Tyndall, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

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