Doylestown man, friend fined in insider-trading case

Jim Self was just trying to impress a Wharton School buddy, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, by bragging about some confidential work he was doing at Merck & Co. Inc.

The friend, former hedge-fund manager Stephen R. Goldfield, took what he was told and turned it into a $13.9 million profit by buying stock and stock options in a company Merck was considering purchasing.

The boost in Self's self-esteem and Goldfield's net worth has cost Self $50,000 and his friend $600,000 for what the SEC says was a classic case of insider trading.

While neither man admitted wrongdoing, both agreed to the fines to settle a civil complaint brought against them by the SEC. The settlement was made public Wednesday.

Self, 45, of Doylestown, and Goldfield, 46, of Odessa, Fla., did not return calls for comment Thursday.

According to the SEC complaint, the two met while attending the executive MBA program at Penn's Wharton School in the mid-1990s. They have remained friends.

In March 2007, Self, as executive director of business development for Merck, was assigned to a Merck team to conduct a confidential analysis of MedImmune Inc., a pharmaceutical company then up for sale. In his role, Self had access to confidential information about MedImmune and its sale deadline.

Self shared much of that information with Goldfield when the two men spent an evening together while Goldfield was in Doylestown visiting his father.

Self did so, according to the SEC, "to boost his reputation in Goldfield's eyes and to show Goldfield he was working on important matters."

Over the next month, the two men spoke daily by cell phone, with Self giving Goldfield updates on the project. For his part, Goldfield was furiously purchasing stock and stock options in MedImmune. At the time, MedImmune's stock was trading at about $33 a share.

On April 23, 2007, MedImmune announced it was being bought by AstraZeneca P.L.C. for $58 a share. Goldfield made $13.9 million on his holdings.

According to the SEC, his good fortune was short-lived: In just over a month, Goldfield lost all the money in other stock-market trades.