Former Goldman Sachs Group vice president Brijesh Goel pleaded not guilty to charges that he illegally traded on confidential information he obtained while working at the investment bank.
Goel, 37, was arraigned Thursday in federal court in Manhattan. He was allowed to remain free on a $1 million bond, which replaces a $500,000 bond set on Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege Goel passed along information he received about potential Goldman deals to a friend over squash games and then split the trading profits. In court on Thursday, a prosecutor said the evidence against Goel would include conversations recorded by a cooperating witness.
A person familiar with the matter said the cooperator is Akshay Niranjan. The Securities and Exchange Commission named Niranjan, 33, as a co-defendant with Goel in a civil suit over the same trades, but he wasn’t included in the criminal case announced Monday.
Niranjan, a foreign exchange trader, was described in the SEC suit as a longtime friend and squash partner of Goel’s.
According to his since-deleted LinkedIn profile, Niranjan worked at Barclays from 2013 to 2018 and joined the bank again in 2021. He is no longer employed at Barclays, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mark Lane, a spokesman for the bank, declined to comment.
Robert Anello, a lawyer for Niranjan, declined to comment.
Reed Brodsky, a lawyer for Goel, took aim at a cooperator in a statement earlier this week denying the allegations. “Sadly, the government rushed to charge Brijesh on the apparent say-so of one person about something that supposedly happened years ago before Brijesh’s current job — without giving Brijesh the chance to speak with them,” Brodsky said. “Thankfully the judge and jury will not make that mistake, and Brijesh looks forward to demonstrating his innocence.”
Goel worked at Goldman from 2013 to 2021. He last year joined Apollo Global Management Inc. as a principal. He has been put on indefinite leave by the firm.
The case is US v. Goel, 22-cr-00396, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
