A New Jersey man has been charged with securities fraud after allegedly using confidential drug trial results from a Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company to earn nearly $500,000 in illicit trading profits, federal prosecutors said.
Hong “John” Wang, 59, of East Brunswick, was arrested Wednesday in New Jersey, one day after a federal grand jury in Massachusetts returned an indictment charging him with three counts of securities fraud, according to court records.
Wang is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on Jan. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
According to the indictment, Wang was hired in June 2023 as a biostatistics consultant by a pharmaceutical company based in Watertown, Massachusetts, while the company was preparing to release clinical trial results for a cancer treatment. Prosecutors allege Wang had access to confidential data showing the trial outcomes were likely to be positive.
By November 2023, Wang allegedly began purchasing shares of the company’s stock as internal data increasingly pointed to successful trial results. Over the following weeks, and before any public disclosure, Wang is accused of using four separate investment accounts to acquire approximately 161,000 shares.
On Dec. 13, 2023, after the company publicly announced the trial results and the stock price surged roughly 135%, Wang allegedly sold 20,000 shares, generating profits exceeding $489,000, prosecutors said.
The government is seeking forfeiture of funds held in four Vanguard investment and retirement accounts allegedly connected to the trades.
Wang’s attorney, Martin G. Weinberg of Martin G. Weinberg PC, said Wednesday that his client intends to contest the charges.
“Mr. Wang will be entering a plea of not guilty and fully asserting that he is innocent of the charges,” Weinberg told Law360.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has also filed a parallel civil enforcement action against Wang.
Wang is represented by Martin G. Weinberg of Martin G. Weinberg PC. The government is represented by Benjamin Saltzman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
The cases are United States v. Wang, case number 1:26-cr-10007, and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Wang, case number 1:26-cv-10140, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
