Sebastian Pinto-Thomaz, a former credit ratings analyst at Standard & Poor’s, was convicted today of insider trading after a seven-day jury trial in Manhattan, marking a fall from grace for a man once trusted with Wall Street’s most sensitive secrets. Prosecutors proved he stole confidential details about Sherwin-Williams’s planned $11.3 billion acquisition of Valspar Corporation and funneled the information to two longtime associates—setting off a chain of illegal trades that netted over $100,000 in illicit gains.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman didn’t mince words: ‘Sebastian Pinto-Thomaz stole confidential information from his employer and passed it to two men he had known for years—and he did it for his own personal benefit.’ The damning verdict followed a trial before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, where jurors heard how Pinto-Thomaz exploited his role in S&P’s Rating Evaluation Service (RES), a confidential advisory function that evaluates how corporate acquisitions affect creditworthiness. In March 2016, he was assigned to analyze Sherwin-Williams’s deal—giving him early access to material, nonpublic information.
The scheme unfolded fast. Pinto-Thomaz leaked the Valspar acquisition plans to Jeremy Millul, a Manhattan jeweler and close friend. Within days, Millul opened a brokerage account on March 13, 2016, bought 480 shares of Valspar stock, and on March 18—just before the public announcement—purchased 75 out-of-the-money call options. When news broke the next day, Valspar shares surged 23%, and Millul cashed out with $106,806 in profits. Prosecutors called it textbook insider trading—enabled by betrayal.
But Millul wasn’t the only beneficiary. Pinto-Thomaz also whispered the secret during a haircut. Abell Oujaddou, a Manhattan hairstylist and salon owner who’s close with Pinto-Thomaz’s mother, got the tip between March 8 and 9, 2016—allegedly in exchange for a cut of the profits. From March 10 to March 18, Oujaddou bought 8,630 shares of Valspar stock, a move prosecutors emphasized was out of character—he’d never traded either Valspar or Sherwin-Williams before. After the deal was announced, he sold for a massive windfall.
S&P’s policies were clear: employees like Pinto-Thomaz were required to uphold strict confidentiality and loyalty. He had reviewed and certified those obligations multiple times. Yet, instead of safeguarding the data, he turned it into a private currency. At trial, he tried shifting blame—claiming his mother had accessed his work materials. The jury didn’t buy it. They returned a unanimous verdict: Pinto-Thomaz acted knowingly and for profit.
The conviction lands in one of Wall Street’s grayer zones—where information moves faster than regulation can track. But this case sends a message: even behind the quiet desks of credit rating firms, crime doesn’t go unnoticed. Pinto-Thomaz now faces years in federal prison, a fall from analyst to felon—all for a tip passed in a boardroom, a jewelry shop, and a salon chair.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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