Ex-BofA senior banker faces DOJ insider-trading probe over deal
A high-ranking Bank of America Corp. dealmaker who lost his job in March in a round of cuts is awaiting his fate on a second front, as the Justice Department sifts evidence in an insider-trading probe.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has been looking into whether Jason Satsky, who was global head of power, utilities and energy infrastructure investment banking, tipped off someone ahead of an $8 billion takeover announced in 2022, according to people with knowledge of the matter. His group helped advise an energy company that was taken private by an investment firm backed by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Bank of America became aware of the U.S. inquiry last year and placed Satsky on leave, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Though the firm hasn’t concluded that he did anything wrong, it dismissed him in March as part of a broader wave of job cuts.
Satsky hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing, and not all investigations lead to prosecutions. The inquiry has been open for more than a year without any action, leaving the banker’s fate in limbo.
Representatives for Bank of America and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment. Satsky didn’t respond to requests for comment.
His public employment record at the U.S. brokerage industry’s main regulator notes he is involved in a pending Justice Department investigation of “securities transactions,” without giving any other detail.
Though U.S. trading probes have touched virtually every rung of Wall Street banks, it’s rare for them to focus on bankers of such seniority. Veteran dealmakers are typically well practiced in keeping market-moving information secret, in part because if information leaks, it can derail transactions, hurting their franchises and careers.
Satsky is a veteran of the business, with a career that began in 1997 at what was then known as Salomon Smith Barney after he earned a law degree from Duke University.
The investigation comes at an unusual moment for the Justice Department.
President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has shifted the agency’s priorities, making the outcome of pending white-collar investigations less certain. That’s been a point of tension among prosecutors in the Southern District of New York as they awaited the arrival of Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to lead their historically independent outpost famous for policing Wall Street.
In many high-profile insider trading cases, authorities have waited until the final stages of investigations to inform Wall Street employers of their suspicions. In that familiar pattern, the firm quickly dismisses the staffer around the time the probe becomes public through charges.
The inquiry involving Satsky hasn’t followed that path, instead playing out quietly and slowly since Bank of America learned of it. When the executive went on leave last year, colleagues weren’t given a reason. And at the time of his departure this year, the bank didn’t have any open investigations into him.
The probe revolves around one of the deals Satsky worked on after arriving from Credit Suisse in 2012. Bank of America represented South Jersey Industries, a holding company for a natural gas utility that traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange.
Infrastructure Investments Fund, a private investment vehicle backed by JPMorgan, announced plans to take the business private in a deal that gave it an enterprise value of $8.1 billion. The stock soared 40% on the announcement.
The acquisition had come together in the waning days of a dealmaking boom that has since cooled off. Even three years on, bankers are still awaiting a pickup in merger activity to rival the averages set over the previous decade.