A corpo executive did illegal insider trading and profited his family $500K.

It started with a text message. A raw, unfiltered exchange between a daughter and her mother that rips the lid off a world of corporate secrets.

“I just totally had a brain popping realization,” Kirstyn Pearl typed to her mom. “…you know how SOMEHOW a $60k check went missing on Ross’s desk – it was intentional since it was an illegal insider trading move by him… it’d be suspicious if he was ever looked into… he made us all think we were crazy searching around the house… when he prob ripped it up”.

The “Ross” she was talking about is Rouzbeh “Ross” Haghighat, her stepfather. He was a powerful corporate executive, an investor, and a member of the board of directors for a biopharmaceutical company called Chinook Therapeutics. And according to a recent legal complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he was the ringmaster of an insider trading scheme that funneled over half a million dollars in illegal profits to his closest friends and family. A copy of that SEC complaint can be found at the bottom this article.

This here was a story about greed, betrayal, and the casual demolition of trust, all meticulously laid bare in a series of damning text messages and panicked phone calls. It’s a look at how the game is rigged by those on the inside.

The secret was a big one. In May 2023, the global pharmaceutical giant Novartis made an unsolicited offer to buy Chinook. This kind of information is pure gold on Wall Street. It’s “material, non-public information” (MNPI), and for a corporate insider like Ross Haghighat, it comes with a simple, sacred rule: keep your mouth shut. Chinook’s own Insider Trading Policy was crystal clear, warning directors to “Keep all MNPI confidential, including from your family and friends”.

The SEC claims as Ross sat negotiations that would eventually send Chinook’s stock price soaring by 58% in a single day, he was allegedly feeding that golden information to his inner circle.

A Pattern of Betrayal

The timeline of the Novartis deal shows a methodical, high-stakes negotiation. But layered on top of it is a second timeline—one of frantic calls to brokers, risky bets, and coordinated trades by people who, according to the SEC, shouldn’t have known a thing.

So what? Who gets hurt? Every single person who sold their Chinook shares in those weeks leading up to the announcement. They were the suckers in a rigged game, selling their stock to Ross Haghighat’s friends and family for a fraction of what it would soon be worth. This isn’t a victimless crime by any means.

It poisons the well of trust that our entire financial system depends on. It confirms the deepest fear of every small-time investor: that Wall Street is a private club, and you’re not in it.

The alleged beneficiaries of Ross’s tips were not seasoned traders. His friend and employee, Fabio Sabzevari—who knew about Ross’s board position because he literally scheduled the meetings—suddenly started trying to “shove” cash into an ATM to fund his brokerage account.

He later confessed to federal agents that Ross told him to buy the securities. Ross’s close friend, James Roberge, who hadn’t touched the stock in years, started buying it up just hours after a visit from Ross. He later admitted to his broker that someone had told him Novartis was buying Chinook.

But it was the family dealings that were most brazen. Ross’s brother, Bruce, managed a trust for Ross’s own children. After the tip, he bought 2,000 shares, later texting Ross, “Done. Let me know the exit”.

And then there’s Kirstyn Pearl. After making over $115,000 on her perfectly timed trades, she arranged to kick back $55,000 to her stepfather, Ross, via a cashier’s check. When that first check went “missing,” Pearl told her mother it was a calculated move by Ross to cover his tracks. A move by a man who, in her words, “always thinks he’s so friggin slick and then gets busted”.

This right here is a snapshot of our modern day late-stage capitalistic culture where confidential information is seen not as a sacred trust, but as a currency to be spent on friends and family. It’s about the arrogance of those who believe the rules that apply to the rest of us don’t apply to them.

The SEC is now seeking to hold them accountable. The agency’s complaint demands they return all their “ill-gotten gains” and pay hefty civil penalties. Crucially, they are asking a federal judge to permanently ban Ross Haghighat from ever serving as an officer or director of a public company again. This isn’t just about getting the money back. It’s about taking away the keys to the kingdom.

But will it be enough? The real solution must needs be about reinforcing a culture of integrity within corporate boardrooms. It’s about ensuring that the watchdogs at the SEC have the resources and the teeth to hunt down these schemes. Because as long as there are secrets worth millions, there will be people who think they are slick enough to get away with selling them out.

All factual claims in this article are sourced from the SEC Complaint in the case of Securities and Exchange Commission v. Rouzbeh Haghighat, et al., Civil Action No. 2:25-cv-14843, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

This was the link I used to find the above legal complaint from the SEC to create this article: https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2025/comp26383.pdf

The 2023 press release of the Novartis buying Chinook Therapeutics can be found here: https://www.novartis.com/news/media-releases/novartis-completes-acquisition-chinook-therapeutics