Jason Gross, Theft of Confidential Information, New York 2014

Jason Gross, a former employee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to theft of confidential information.

Gross, 34, entered his guilty plea on September 25, 2014, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein.

According to court documents, between July and September 2014, Gross took confidential information from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York without authorization and sent it to a former supervisor at the bank, who was then employed at an investment bank headquartered in New York. The confidential information related to the bank’s supervision and was obtained during Gross’s employment at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Federal Reserve System fulfills several roles in the nation’s economy, including managing the nation’s money supply through monetary policy, supervising and regulating banking institutions, and overseeing the stability of the financial system. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is the Federal Reserve’s main governing body, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the banks that is part of the Federal Reserve.

Gross’s responsibilities at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York included assisting with the supervision of certain banks. Prior to April 2014, Gross and Individual-1 had worked together at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. From at least July 2014, up to September 2014, at the direction of Individual-1, who had left the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and begun to work at an investment bank headquartered in New York, Gross emailed documents containing confidential supervisory information to Individual-1.

Individual-1 utilized certain of the confidential documents in an effort to further Individual-1’s employment at the investment bank. In particular, Individual-1 disseminated certain of the confidential documents to other investment bank employees for the purpose of assisting with the investment bank’s work for its client banks.

Gross knowingly sent the confidential documents without authorization from the Board or the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Gross faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

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