Former Centerview Banker Secures Settlement to Conclude US Insider-Trading Investigation

Federal Prosecutors Reach Settlement in Insider-Trading Case

Federal prosecutors have reached a settlement with Darina Windsor, a former investment banker at Centerview Partners LLC, to eventually drop criminal charges against her. Windsor was accused of participating in an international insider-trading ring and has been living in her native Thailand for years. The charges stem from 2019, when Windsor and her then live-in boyfriend, Benjamin Taylor, were accused of passing inside information on 22 companies from late 2012 to early 2018.

According to prosecutors, the pair, who referred to each other as "Pops" and "Popsy" in emails, made more than $1 million from the scheme. As part of the settlement, securities fraud charges against Windsor will be dropped in a year, as long as she follows through on a pledge to pay $100,000 to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and stays out of legal trouble. Her settlement includes $50,000 in alleged trading profits and $50,000 in penalties.

Windsor, who left London and has lived in Thailand since before the charges were made public, pleaded not guilty on Thursday during an unusual video hearing in Manhattan federal court before US District Judge Denise Cote. Centerview Partners spokesman Dana Cimilluca confirmed that Windsor was fired a decade ago for misconduct.

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The case is part of a broader scheme to pass inside tips on deals to a ring that operated in the US, UK, France, Switzerland, Greece, Israel, and Hong Kong. Several people, including an ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker, have been convicted in the case. Taylor, who worked in London for Moelis & Co., is scheduled to plead guilty in June to a single count of conspiracy.

The case is US v. Taylor, 18-cr-184, US District Court, Southern District of New York.