Ex-pro soccer player raked in $2.7M trading on secrets pilfered from girlfriends laptop, feds allege

A former pro soccer player raked in $2.7 million trading on confidential info he pilfered from his girlfriend’s work laptop, federal prosecutors in New Jersey alleged.Justin Jennings, 27, was hit late Tuesday with securities fraud charges for allegedly misappropriating secrets on deals involving firms such as Apollo Global Management.Jennings, who briefly played in Latvia’s second tier of pro soccer, allegedly accessed a confidential database on the woman’s computer to make well-timed trades based on info about eight companies including Apollo, the feds said.While they dated for over two years, the unnamed woman — an account executive at a top Wall Street PR firm — shared “confidential and private details about her work and personal life” including the passwords for the laptop and online services, according to the criminal complaint.Jennings denied the allegations.“Once the evidence is presented, we are confident that Mr.Jennings and his company will be fully vindicated,” said his attorneys Robert Stahl and Laura Gasiorwski.While the PR firm Jennings allegedly targeted was not named, sources close to the case said it is Joele Frank, one of the biggest names on Wall Street.“According to the charges, [Jennings] exploited a personal relationship with a now former junior employee to illegally obtain confidential information.

There are no allegations against the firm or any employee, current or former.We worked closely with the relevant authorities and will continue to do so,” Joele Frank said in a statement.The identity of the PR firm was first reported by Bloomberg.“Perhaps they got the AI bug and decided client information should be open sourced,” a Wall Street insider who works for a rival firm joked to The Post.The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil lawsuit against Jennings and his investment firm, Vortex Strategies, for his alleged “unlawful insider trading based upon materialnonpublic information in advance of e...