The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today charged 21 individuals for their alleged involvement in a decade-long insider trading scheme that used information misappropriated from multiple global law firms and resulted in millions of dollars in illicit profits.

According to the SEC’s complaint, between 2018 and 2024, Nicolo Nourafchan, a mergers and acquisitions attorney based in Los Angeles, California, orchestrated a global scheme with his partner Robert Yadgarov, of Long Beach, New York. The complaint alleges that Nourafchan misappropriated material nonpublic information from his firm’s clients pertaining to more than twelve pending corporate transactions.

The complaint further alleges that he or Yadgarov tipped that information to other scheme participants who agreed to kick back a portion of their trading profits, or who, in turn, tipped others who traded.

Nourafchan and Yadgarov allegedly recruited an additional corporate lawyer who also misappropriated material nonpublic information about additional deals and tipped that information to Nourafchan and Yadgarov.

The SEC’s complaint, brought by the Division of Enforcement’s Market Abuse Unit and filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, charges the defendants with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.