Oakland Investment Advisor Charged With Securities Fraud, Insider Trading

CBS San Francisco

September 22, 2022

An Oakland investment advisor was charged with securities fraud and insider trading on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

John Mendes, 39, is a registered investment advisor accused of using insider information to purchase and sell stocks that he received from a friend who worked for Granite Construction Inc., a publicly traded construction materials company in Watsonville. Granite negotiated with and eventually acquired another company, Layne Christensen Co., a construction and infrastructure business from Texas.

Prosecutors allege that the Granite employee shared information with Mendes about the pending deal with Layne Christensen Co.; however, the government says the employee "had a history of sharing confidences" with Mendes and expected that he would keep the non-public information private.

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