Posh Dinner Parties Led to $6-Million Insider-Trading Case

An accountant at Illumina Inc. who allegedly gave illegal tips to investment fund owner Donald Blakstad said she got swept up by a lavish lifestyle that he introduced her to and revealed insider information to keep him as a friend.

Martha Patricia Bustos, the government’s star witness at Blakstad’s insider-trading trial in Manhattan, outlined for a jury Tuesday how she provided non-public information about the biotechnology company’s earnings to Blakstad over the years.

Prosecutors claim Blakstad led an insider-trading ring that racked up more than $6 million in illegal profits using inside information from 2016 to 2018.

Bustos, who has ...