The United States Attorney’s Office announced on Mar. 25 the filing of a civil forfeiture action to recover approximately $1,413,037 in alleged proceeds from an insider trading scheme seized from a U.S.-based brokerage account held by Zhi Ge of Singapore.
According to the civil complaint, Ge is alleged to have engaged in and conspired with others to commit securities fraud and was charged in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Boston in November 2025. The indictment alleges that between November 2016 and February 2024, Ge conspired with co-defendants and others to obtain material non-public information about financial performance and merger-and-acquisition activity of various publicly traded companies. The complaint further alleges that Ge executed securities trades while possessing this information and provided it to others for a percentage of trading profits.
The civil complaint states that the seized funds are proceeds traceable to the purchase and sale of call option contracts made by Ge while he possessed material non-public information.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Field Office, made the announcement regarding the action. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Lyons is prosecuting the civil forfeiture case, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy E. Moran is handling the criminal prosecution.
The details contained in both complaints are allegations; “the defendant is presumed to be innocent of the criminal charges unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court,” according to officials.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts enforces federal laws through prosecutions involving crimes such as national security threats and civil rights violations, serves all residents across Massachusetts from facilities including its main office at John Joseph Moakley United States Federal Courthouse as well as branch offices in Springfield and Worcester, employs over 200 attorneys, paralegals, and professional staff members, advances community initiatives on civil rights and violence prevention throughout Massachusetts communities, and operates as part of the United States Department of Justice, according to its official website.