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Press Release

Criminal Defense Attorney Sentenced for Role in Insider Trading Conspiracy

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – A criminal defense attorney from Lowell was sentenced today for conspiring to use inside information about the business activities of American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) to profit from trading AMSC stock.

Douglas Parigian, 56, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to eight months of home confinement and three years of supervised release.  Parigian is also required to cooperate if ordered to disgorge his trading profits, pay a penalty in the related civil enforcement action brought against him by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, and to comply with any order issued by state licensing authorities suspending or revoking his license to practice law.

In May 2015, Parigian pleaded guilty to insider trading and conspiracy.

Beginning around July 2009, a friend of Parigian’s, Eric McPhail, began giving Parigian and others inside information about AMSC’s business activities and upcoming earnings announcements.  McPhail obtained this information during golf matches, dinners, and other social outings with a senior executive at AMSC; both men were members of the Oakley Country Club in Watertown, Mass.  The  AMSC executive trusted McPhail to keep the information to himself and was unaware that McPhail was instead tipping Parigian and others.

Between July 2009 and April 2011, Parigian, who knew the information was confidential and that it was improper for McPhail to disclose it, nonetheless repeatedly traded on it, making approximately $275,000 in illicit gains and avoided losses.  Parigian, McPhail, and others in the group are avid amateur golfers in the Boston area.

In June 2015, McPhail was convicted after trial and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 17, 2015.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today.  The United States Attorney’s Office received valuable assistance from the Securities & Exchange Commission in the course of investigating this case.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew E. Lelling of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit and Seth B. Kosto of Ortiz’s Cybercrime Unit.

Updated August 17, 2015

Topic
Financial Fraud