Doron Tavlin, the former vice president of business development at Mazor Robotics, has been found guilty for his role in an insider trading conspiracy.
Former Mazor Robotics VP Guilty of Insider Trading
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#medtronicSecondary#mazorrobotics
Mazor Robotics was a medical device company based in Israel focused on robotics for spinal procedures. In 2018 it was acquired by Medtronic, Inc., a medical device company based in Ireland with executive headquarters in Minneapolis.
The conspiracy involved both Tavlin and his friend Afshin Farahan. In 2018, based on information from the nonpublic acquisition negotiations, Tavlin, per the Department of Justice press release, “tipped this information about the acquisition to his friend, Farahan, and instructed him to keep the information secret.”
During August 2018 and September 2018, Farahan bought more than $1 million of Mazor stock. Farahan then sold all of the stock he had purchased the morning after the acquisition announcement. This “resulted in a combined profit of over $500,000 for himself and one other individual.”
After the acquisition, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) investigated certain trades of Mazor securities. Tavlin falsely responded to FINRA’s inquiry by “denying that he recognized any names on a list of persons and entities that purchased Mazor securities, which included Farahan.”
Evidence at trial also showed an agreement between Tavlin and Farahan regarding the disclosure of the material, nonpublic information. In October 2019, per that agreement, Farahan gave $25,000 to Tavlin for the information.
After a nine-day trial, Tavlin was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit insider trading and 10 counts of securities fraud and aiding and abetting securities fraud. Last year, Farahan pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in insider trading. Sentencing hearings for Tavlin and Farahan will take place at a later time.
A third individual, David Gantman, also faced charges related to the conspiracy. Gantman was found not guilty for those charges.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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