A former OppenheimerFunds analyst faces up to 45 years in prison after being charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and investment company fraud in connection with his alleged scheme to misappropriate confidential information about pending trades by his employer on behalf of its clients.
Sergei Polevikov, 48, of Port Washington, New York, was arrested Wednesday night and appeared before Magistrate Judge James L. Cott in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday, according to Audrey Strauss, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
He was released on $1.5 million in bail and a preliminary healing is scheduled for Oct. 25, according to court documents.
According to the complaint filed Tuesday and unsealed Thursday, Polevikov was charged with one count of securities fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of investment company fraud.
Polevikov, who also co-founded the health care tech firm WellAI in 2019 and serves as its CEO, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each of the securities fraud and wire fraud charges, and five years in prison on the investment company fraud charge, according to Strauss.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a related civil action against Polevikov in the same court on Thursday.
Polevikov worked for OppenheimerFunds, which was acquired by Invesco in 2018, for more than 15 years, from 2004-2019, first as a senior risk analyst, then as a portfolio manager and director of asset allocation research, according to his LinkedIn profile. Most recently, his role was quant analyst, according to Invesco.
