Ex-Cravath employee charged over insider trading tied to major client M&A deals

A longtime employee of Cravath has been charged with insider trading after US authorities accused him of using confidential information about major takeovers to make more than $70,000 in profit.

Chetram Balli, 54, was charged on Thursday with trading in the shares of five companies listed in New York between April 2025 and October 2026.

The firm is not named in the announcement, but public records identify Balli as a longtime Cravath employee. The US Department of Justice said he had worked at the firm since around 1989 as a document processing specialist.

A Cravath spokesperson told Non-Billable: “This individual, who was not a member of our legal staff, is no longer with the firm. Cravath is working in full cooperation with the authorities investigating the matter and there are no allegations of wrongdoing against the firm.”

Prosecutors allege Balli used confidential information relating to Cravath clients to place trades in advance of major M&A deals.

One of the alleged trades involved Paramount Skydance ahead of the February announcement of its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. Cravath advised Paramount on the deal, which completed in October.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the DoJ said.

The case is the latest insider trading allegation to rock Big Law this year.

In May, US authorities accused a former Goodwin lawyer of being at the centre of an alleged insider trading network that used confidential information about takeover deals to generate millions of dollars in profits.

In the UK, a former City M&A lawyer pleaded not guilty in September to five counts of insider dealing. The FCA alleges he used confidential information obtained through his work on the 2023 take-private of maternity fashion retailer Seraphine to trade in the company’s shares.