Ex-OppenheimerFunds Analyst Is Charged With Front-Running (2)

Sergei Polevikov, a former quantitative analyst at OppenheimerFunds, was criminally charged for allegedly using confidential information to front-run trades by his employer.

Polevikov, 48, is accused of using inside information about potential trades being made on behalf of his firm’s clients to trade for himself in a brokerage account he opened in his wife’s name. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said he made $8.5 million exploiting the relatively small movements in price that can be generated by large trades. They said he made more than 3,000 trades, some of them on company computers.

Sergei Polevikov leaving Manhattan federal court after being released on $1.5 million bond on Sept. 23.

Photographer: Bob Van Voris/Bloomberg

Polevikov, of Port Washington, New York, was ...