Boston, May 8, 2026 — Federal prosecutors have unsealed sweeping indictments charging 30 individuals, including several elite corporate lawyers, in what authorities describe as a sophisticated decade-long insider trading scheme that generated tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits from major mergers and acquisitions.
The charges, filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston on May 6 and 7, allege that lawyers at prominent law firms accessed confidential client information about pending corporate deals and leaked it to a network of traders. The traders then placed bets on the stocks and options before the deals became public, prosecutors say. Some tipsters allegedly received cash kickbacks or shares in return.
A Global Network Exploiting BigLaw Access
At the center of the alleged conspiracy is Nicolo Nourafchan, a Yale Law School graduate and former corporate attorney, along with co-conspirator Robert Yadgarov, a personal injury lawyer. Authorities claim the pair helped recruit insiders and coordinate trades across nearly 30 major deals.
Nineteen defendants have been arrested, while others remain fugitives, including some believed to be in Russia and Israel. The scheme reportedly involved burner phones, encrypted communications, in-person meetings with devices turned off, and efforts to launder proceeds through shell companies and foreign accounts.
Law firms implicated through the deals include heavyweights in the M&A world such as Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Latham & Watkins, and Goodwin Procter, though the firms themselves are not accused of wrongdoing. Individual lawyers from firms including Sidley Austin are named in the charging documents.
The Bizarre “Rabbi” Code
To avoid detection, the conspirators allegedly used colorful coded language. Pending mergers were referred to as a “rabbi” about to undergo “surgery.”
Court filings detail exchanges such as:
- Simon Fensterszaub asking: “I really need to know when the rabbi is scheduled for surgery” and “How’s the rabbi??”
- Gavryel Silverstein replying: “He’s stable,” indicating the deal was still on track.
Additional coded references included concerns about the “doctor” performing the surgery and whether the procedure was still necessary. Deals were also disguised as “flights” or other innocuous topics, often with religious undertones.
Charges and Stakes
Defendants face charges including securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a parallel civil enforcement action.
Prosecutors describe the network as undermining the integrity of U.S. financial markets by exploiting the trust placed in lawyers handling some of the world’s largest corporate transactions. Illegal gains reportedly reached into the tens of millions of dollars.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The case is expected to unfold with significant attention given the prominence of some of the individuals and the colorful details of their alleged communications.
This investigation highlights ongoing vulnerabilities in the legal and financial sectors where access to material non-public information (MNPI) can be monetized if proper controls are bypassed. Authorities continue to pursue remaining fugitives and additional co-conspirators.
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