The Supreme Court case on Tuesday that upheld the insider-trading conviction of Bassam Salman, a Chicago trader, had an interesting start.
Brothers Maher and Michael Kara starting discussing innovative cancer treatments when their dad was dying from the disease in 2004.
Maher joined Citigroup as a health-care banker in 2002 and had access to inside information about upcoming deals. He relied on his older brother, Michael, who had a chemistry degree, to help him understand his work.
Michael soon started to trade on the information, according to the opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito.
While Maher didn’t initially know, he soon helped out.
It was only later that Salman, a friend of Michael, was fed the information and started his illegal trades.