A federal jury in Minnesota has convicted a former Mazor Robotics VP of insider trading and securities fraud around Medtronic’s $1.6 billion acquisition announcement in 2018.
Ron Tavlin was Mazor’s VP of business development from 2017 to 2019. Before that, he’d been a paid consultant for Medtronic. On Feb. 16, a jury found him guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit insider trading and 10 counts of securities fraud and aiding and abetting securities fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.
In 2022, federal prosecutors accused Tavlin of tipping off his friend Afshin Farahan about the impending deal in 2018, and that Farahan then bought Mazor stock. Farahan made a profit of about $500,000 off the allegedly illegal trades, according to authorities.
Prosecutors claimed that Farahan had agreed to pay Tavlin for the information. More than a year late, Farahan gave Tavlin a $25,000 check.
When a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) investigation ensued over Mazor stock trades before the acquisition announcement, Tavlin falsely denied knowing the names of anyone on a list of people making securities purchases — a list that included Farahan, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.
Farahan pleaded guilty on Aug. 4, 2022, to one count of conspiracy to engage in insider trading.
Sentencing for both Tavlin and Farahan will take place at a later time.
The jury found another defendant in the case, David Gantman, not guilty on insider trading and securities fraud charges.