Senior Fed Official Pockets $770,000 in Insider Trading Scheme, Faces 25 Years in Prison: US Department of Justice

An ex-bank examiner and senior manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (FRBR) could spend decades behind bars for using confidential information to trade shares of US banks.

The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) says former FRBR senior official Robert Brian Thompson has pleded guilty to one count of insider trading and one count of making false statements.

The DOJ says Thompson abused his position and misused confidential supervisory information to execute 69 trades involving stocks of seven unnamed financial institutions. According to the DOJ, Thompson’s trading activities netted him personal profits to the tune of $771,678.

To help conceal his insider trading scheme, Thompson made fraudulent entries on his Form D, saying he held no equity in any publicly listed financial institution. He also said that he had not engaged in any conduct that represents a conflict of interest or a violation of the the law or FRBR’s policies.

The Fed’s Form D requires employees to divulge if they own assets, including shares in the banks that are registered with the Federal Reserve System.

The DOJ says the fraud happened between October 2020 and February 2024.

For his actions, Thompson faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail for one count of insider trading and five years for one count of making false statements on his Form D.

Thompson is slated for sentencing on March 19th, 2025.

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