FDA Chemist Liang And Son Charged With Insider Trading On FDA Approvals

An FDA Chemist Cheng Yi Liang, 57 and his son Andrew Liang have been charged with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, securities fraud and wire fraud from trades relating to Clinical Data Inc., Vanda Pharmaceuticals and several other publicly traded companies. The FBI found that Liang was using the FDA’s secure database to find out when certain drugs would win approval and would tip his son, who would purchase stock in those companies. The two netted over $2.3 million in illicit profits from the trades according to the DOJ. Agents from the government installed software on Liang’s computer at the FDA which showed Liang’s activities.