Ex-Pfizer manager gets nine months for Covid insider trading

A former Pfizer Inc. statistician was sentenced to nine months behind bars for making more than $200,000 by trading on confidential information before a key announcement about the drugmaker’s Covid-19 treatment Paxlovid.

Amit Dagar, convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy after a one-week trial in January, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan by US District Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. Dagar was charged in June 2023 with trading ahead of a November 2021 announcement that Paxlovid had reduced hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients by 89%, which sent the shares surging. He had asked for a sentence of probation or home confinement.

The case is part of an effort by Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams to crack down on corporate crime including insider trading. The charges were announced the same day as the case against a trio of investors accused of trading on secret information about the merger plans of Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank check company that took Donald Trump’s social media startup public.

Prosecutors said Dagar, 45, of Hillsborough, New Jersey, was a senior statistical program lead for a Paxlovid trial when he learned that the company had “got the outcome” and that a press release was scheduled for the next day. He bought short-dated, out-of-the-money call options in Pfizer stock later that day while tipping off a friend, who bought similar options and passed the information on to another acquaintance, the US said. The friend pleaded guilty in October to one count of securities fraud and was sentenced to three years’ probation.

The judge had initially intended to give Dagar a sentence ranging from a year and a day in prison to 18 months, but decided to impose a lower sentence due to his lack of a criminal record, his family circumstances and the possibility he will face deportation to his native India if he is incarcerated for a longer period. Carter also ordered Dagar to pay restitution of nearly $273,000.

Patrick Smith, a lawyer for Dagar, argued that Dagar had made a “snap decision” to trade and didn’t solicit the inside information or ask followup questions about what the numbers meant.

“I’m begging you to give this guy a shot to stay here with his family,” Smith said.

A tearful Dagar urged Carter to not punish his wife and 4-year-old daughter for his misconduct, saying he just wants to be there for them and that “nothing else matters.”

“I’m just filled with remorse,” Dagar said. “I’ve lost everything.”

The case is US v. Dagar, 23-cr-319, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).