By Grant McCool

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Authorities said on Thursday that a former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc employee tipped friends and relatives with inside information about 13 impending mergers by divulging confidential information he got from his public relations executive wife.

Former Lehman salesman Matthew Devlin was charged with participating in an insider trading scheme, a criminal complaint filed in District Court in Manhattan showed.

The complaint said Devlin should have known not to divulge confidential information his wife shared with him.

His wife is a partner in public relations firm Brunswick Group LLC. Brunswick said in a statement: "The husband of a Brunswick employee has been arrested by U.S. authorities for using information obtained illegally from her and without her knowledge, which has then passed to third parties."

Two day traders, a lawyer and a brokerage salesman were also charged.

Court documents showed that the government accused them of illegal trades in transactions including Novartis AG acquiring Eon Labs in 2005 and Alcoa Inc's hostile offer for Alcan in 2007.

Attorneys for the defendants were not available for comment.

A separate complaint by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was filed on Thursday against seven people and two companies. It said the trades yielded more than $4.8 million in illegal profits between March 2004 and July this year.

Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September and was partially taken over by Barclays.

"Barclays Wealth and Lehman Brothers prior to its acquisition cooperated fully with law enforcement authorities to assist them in their investigation into this alleged insider trading ring," Barclays said in a statement.

The SEC said in its complaint that two traders referred to Devlin's wife as the "golden goose" and "curried favor with his friends and business associates and received in return cash, luxury items and other benefits."

The SEC complaint said that these included a Cartier watch, a Barneys New York gift card, a wide-screen TV and a Ralph Lauren leather jacket.

(Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

Publié le 18 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Reuters