An ex director or the Wall Street financial behemoth, Barclays Investment Bank, was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday and charged with insider trading and providing illegal tips. It turns out that Steven McClatchey, 58, needed some plumbing work done. Instead of paying a plumber with money, like normal people do, McClatchey decided to trade some secret information for the work instead. It has ended up with both he, and the plumber, Gary Pusey, 47, being arrested and charged on multiple counts.
The former financier from Long Island is alleged to have provided secret information to his plumber and fishing buddy with regard to certain mergers and acquisitions that were about to happen. Pusey the plumber went ahead and acted on the information and made nearly a dozen illegal trades over the course of a year and a half from March of 2014 to August of 2015.
Both McClatchy and Pusey face wire fraud charges as well as securities fraud and conspiracy charges according to documents released on Tuesday by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. In exchange for the information, Pusey provided his buddy McClatchey with a renovated private bathroom at his former Barclays office as well as a gym bag full of cash. Pusey, the documents state, made around $76,000 from his illegal trades based on McClatcheys illegal tips.
After being released, McClatchey was released of his own recognizance and his lawyer made no public comments. Barclays released a public statement saying that they were completely behind the investigation and that they can, in no way, condone the actions of their former director.
McClactchey and Pusey first met back in 2011 at their yacht club. The two became fast friends as they discovered they had much in common. After some time of hanging out, McClatchey told Pusey that he should keep a close watch on certain companies that McClatchey told him about because there was soon going to be some positive mergers and acquisitions news coming from those companies.
Pusey pleaded guilty to all of his charges and is cooperating with the investigation in a plea bargain for a lesser sentence.
PHOTO CREDITS: Bloomberg / The New York Daily News