( WJET/WFXP ) – A Pennsylvania man who profited over $800,000 from insider trading pleaded guilty in federal court.

United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced on July 11 that 62-year-old Frank T. Poerio Jr., of Gibsonia, pleaded guilty to four counts of securities fraud.

In connection with the guilty plea, Poerio used sensitive, material non-public information (MNPI) obtained from a Dick’s Sporting Goods employee to engage with 160 trades of Dick’s securities from August 2019 through May 2021, which netted him around $823,000 in profits.

The employee worked at the company’s corporate offices in Moon Township, PA, and several of the trading incidents happened right before Dick’s released their periodic earning statements where employees were prohibited from trading at that time.

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“Frank Poerio admitted to gaming the system by using material non-public information from a company employee to conduct well more than a hundred trades over the course of several years that resulted in nearly a million dollars in profit,” said Olshan. “Our office is dedicated to working with our law enforcement partners and fellow agencies to protect the integrity of our public trading systems and ensure that anyone who cheats those systems to score easy profits is held accountable under the law.”

U.S. District Judge Marilyn J. Horan scheduled sentencing for Oct. 31, 2024, Porerio for each count faces a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison and/or a $5 million fine.

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