A Lehman Brothers broker master minded a $4.8 million insider-trading scheme, passing on to pals valuable in formation from his high-powered publi cist wife, whom he dubbed his “golden goose,” authorities said yesterday.
Matthew Devlin, 35, helped make his friends millions through the scheme, which also involved Playboy maga zine’s Miss August 1994, the feds said.
Maria Checa, 38, a petite, Colombia-born beauty, was not charged in the plot, but is named in the joint civil lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Checa – who, according to the skin mag, likes romantic, can dlelit dinners and is turned off by “dis honest” people – dated Jamil Bouchareb, 27, a close Devlin pal.
Bouchareb, 27, was arrested yesterday in Miami on conspiracy charges.
He fed his bullish bunny advance info on nine corporate announcements of mergers and business deals provided to him by Devlin, according to the SEC complaint.
Checa, the buxom star of the video “Lusty Latin Ladies,” made hundreds of thousands of dollars in those deals, according to the complaint. She could have to fork over her allegedly illegal profits.
At one point, Devlin – whose wife, Nina, is a partner at Brunswick Group LLC, an international public-relations firm – boasted to Bouchareb that “[your girlfriend] may be amazing at some things, but none of them are like the golden goose.”
In exchange for giving his friends the scoop, Devlin received gifts of cash, a Cartier watch, a widescreen TV, and tuition at a Porsche driving school, according to court papers.
Devlin pleaded guilty to securities fraud Tuesday and is cooperating with Manhattan federal prosecutors.
The SEC said that from March 2004 through this past July, Matthew Devlin passed along secrets about more than a dozen pending mergers and acquisitions from his wife.
The companies had hired Nina Devlin’s p.r. firm to handle sensitive business dealings, including acquisi tions by GE, Dow Chemical and Novartis.
Nina’s lawyer told The Asso ciated Press her husband obtained the information without her knowledge by being close to her and monitoring her schedule.
In a statement, Brunswick called the scheme a “violation of trust between husband and wife.”
Devlin also passed info to Bouchareb’s business partner, Daniel Corbin, 32, authorities said.
Bouchareb and Corbin allegedly made more than $3 million with Devlin’s info.
Frederick Bowers, 40, of Lehman Brothers, and tax attorney Eric Holzer, an associate at Paul Hastings, were also charged.