Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, ENFORCEMENT—Trump pardons former U.S. congressman convicted of insider trading, (Jun 8, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Navigant
By Suzanne Cosgrove
The June 4 pardon of Stephan Buyer follows the Supreme Court’s refusal to rehear his case.
President Trump has pardoned Stephan Buyer, a former U.S. Republican congressman who represented Indiana, for securities laws violations. Buyer was convicted of securities fraud in two separate cases, most notably for insider trading while working as a T-Mobile US consultant prior to the company’s $23 billion merger with Sprint.
The T-Mobile-Sprint deal was completed in April 2020 after two years of approvals and litigation.
In granting his pardon, Trump cited Buyer’s career as a Judge Advocate General in the United States Army and as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from the state of Indiana.
According to Trump’s proclamation, dated June 4, dozens of lawmakers endorsed Buyer’s pardon, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and (Retired) Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Background. The SEC and the DOJ announced insider trading charges against Buyer in July 2022, charging him with illegal trading ahead of two corporate mergers. He was indicted and arrested (U.S. v. Buyer, July 21, 2022; SEC v. Buyer, July 25, 2022).
According to the SEC’s filing, when Buyer left Congress in 2011, he established a consulting business called the Steve Buyer Group, by which he leveraged his experience as a legislator to help clients with issues related to the telecommunications industry and the U.S. Department of Veterans, among other sectors.
Charges. In 2018, while working as a consultant for T-Mobile, Buyer learned of material nonpublic information related to T-Mobile US’ planned acquisition of Sprint. Buyer used that information to buy stock for himself and several other individuals, reaping gains of nearly $108,000 when the acquisition was later made public in April of that year.
He followed a similar playbook in 2019 when he bought stock after gaining material nonpublic information while serving as a consultant for Guidehouse LLC. In that case, he learned Guidehouse planned to acquire Navigant Consulting and garnered profits of $227,742 when the acquisition was announced in August 2019.
The SEC complaint charged Buyer with violating Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5. It sought disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus interest, penalties, a permanent injunction, and an officer and director bar against Buyer, as well as disgorgement from Buyer's wife, Joni Lynn Buyer.
The DOJ indictment charged Buyer with four counts of securities fraud, each of which carried a maximum term of 20 years in prison.
Buyer’s appeal. Venue was a key issue in Buyer’s trial in the Southern District of New York, and Buyer challenged his insider trading conviction on the basis of venue.
While the Second Circuit established previously that venue exists in the Southern District of New York, Buyer argued in a cert petition that electronic trading renders that rule obsolete (Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Buyer v. U.S., No. 25-205 (Nov. 10, 2025)).
Further, Buyer argued the rule effectively grants the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York carte blanche to prosecute virtually all insider-trading cases, which is “an outcome fundamentally at odds with the Founders’ ‘deep and abiding antipathy to letting the government arbitrarily choose a venue in criminal prosecutions.’”
The Supreme Court considered Buyer’s petition but denied it on May 18, 2026.
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