The FBI has identified Izunna Okonkwo, the Pastel tech start-up co-founder who made the Forbes 30-under-30 list in 2023, as a person of interest and co-conspirator in an insider trading and money laundering scheme that generated $41 million in illegal profit over five years.
Mr Okonkwo, who took graduate studies at Stanford University, allegedly bought stocks and securities based on material non-public information shared by investment banker Gyunho Justin Kim through his American-Pakistani friend, Saad Shoukat.
Messrs Kim and Shoukat met in 2018 while interning at different multinational establishments, and their friendship devolved into criminal activity as Mr Kim shared confidential information about upcoming acquisitions.
Mr Shoukat allegedly passed the information to Mr Okonkwo and other associates, with the Nigerian and Pakistani said to have been friends from their university days.
Mr Okonkwo, 30, allegedly knew Mr Kim was the source of the illicit gains and at one point suggested helping him secure new employment after years of benefiting from the tip-offs.
Mr Kim worked at Citibank’s investment group in San Francisco and had access to confidential financial intelligence as the bank frequently advised companies involved in acquisition deals.
“Okonkwo knew that Kim worked at the investment bank, and Saad Shoukat and Okonkwo communicated on an encrypted messaging app about the impending Reata deal before it was public,” FBI special agent Antony Belitti wrote in a complaint to the U.S. District Court for New Jersey on November 24.
“Saad Shoukat exchanged messages with Okonkwo about helping Kim find a new job,” the filing added.
Mr Shoukat was said to have brokered an arrangement allowing him to trade through Mr Okonkwo’s brokerage accounts in exchange for giving the Nigerian entrepreneur 50 per cent of illegal proceeds.
The FBI said the pair drafted a written agreement confirming access to the accounts and the profit-sharing formula.
When Gilead moved to acquire Immunomedics in 2020, Mr Kim allegedly informed Mr Shoukat, who then tipped Mr Okonkwo and others to buy shares ahead of the announcement.
Mr Kim learnt of the deal on June 23, 2020, and by July 2, Mr Okonkwo and other co-conspirators had begun accumulating Immunomedics shares.
The FBI traced logins to Mr Okonkwo’s brokerage account to a London residence linked to him, which also hosted Mr Shoukat while he conducted some of the trades.
“Around the same time, there were logins to Saad Shoukat’s account from the same IP address in the United Kingdom from which there were logins to Okonkwo’s account,” an FBI agent told the court.
Gilead announced its $21 billion acquisition of Immunomedics in September 2020, and Messrs Shoukat, Kim, and others made $4.9 million from the deal.
The FBI intercepted messages showing exchanges between Mr Okonkwo and a friend about buying Immunomedics stock in August 2020.
Mr Okonkwo allegedly made $2.3 million from the buyout, while a relative received $465,299.
When Amgen moved to acquire Five Prime in early 2022, Mr Okonkwo reportedly opened a brokerage account the next day and bought shares at $15, eventually earning $166,000 as the stock surged following the announcement.
He allegedly made another $370,000 from GSK’s buyout of Sierra, while a relative earned $41,000.
Pfizer’s $5.4 billion acquisition of GBT in August 2022 reportedly yielded Mr Okonkwo $3.5 million, with his Atlanta-based relative making $617,727 and Mr Shoukat earning $5 million.
Days after receiving $3.5 million from the GBT deal, Pastel announced a $5.5 million seed funding round.
Mr Okonkwo co-founded Pastel in 2021 with Stanford colleagues Olamide Oladeji and Abuzar Royesh, and was celebrated by Forbes in 2023 as one of Africa’s rising executives under 30.
He allegedly received $4.7 million after Biogen finalised its takeover of Reata in July 2023 and another $2.9 million from AbbVie’s acquisition of Immonogen in November 2023.
Federal prosecutors told U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hammer that the profits earned by Messrs Shoukat, Okonkwo, and other named individuals totalled at least $41 million.
Mr Kim is facing six counts of insider trading, wire fraud, and money laundering for allegedly leaking confidential Citibank information to associates.
It was unclear whether Mr Okonkwo had been taken into custody, although filings identified him as a dual Nigerian-American citizen with business operations in Nigeria and Atlanta.
Online records show he has been running Pastel from Yaba, Lagos, and had used an office in Atlanta while establishing the company in 2022.
