Stock Broker Admits|He Obstructed Justice

SAN DIEGO (CN) - Former Merrill Lynch stock broker Gary Yin pleaded guilty Tuesday to obstructing justice and laundering money for former Qualcomm vice president Jing Wang, who is separately charged with inside trading.

Yin, 54, of San Diego, admitted in his plea agreement that he helped Wang conceal his inside trading by using a secret nominee brokerage account at Merrill Lynch, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Merrill Lynch is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Wang, 51, of Del Mar, was separately charged by the SEC with trading on inside information he got through his job at (nonparty) Qualcomm.

Yin admitted that he helped conceal Wang's inside trading by setting up a shell company in the British Virgin Islands to launder the money.

"At Wang's direction, Yin also obstructed justice by removing account documents (subject to an SEC subpoena) from the United States and taking them to China," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement announcing his plea. "In China, Yin delivered the documents to Jing Wang's brother, Bing Wang. Once delivered, Yin rehearsed a false cover story with Bing, concocted by his brother. In order to make the cover story credible, Yin also reviewed the trading history in the offshore account with Bing Wang to enable him to lie successfully to the authorities in the United States.

"Finally, in order to hide the proceeds of Wang's illegal trades, and to distance Wang from the trades, Yin transferred money from one shell company's brokerage account to another. All told, Yin transferred approximately $525,000 from accounts related to shell companies in the British Virgin Islands."

Yin faces up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his Dec. 16 sentencing.

Bing Wang, 53, of China, also is charged with conspiring to obstruct justice and launder money, prosecutors said in the statement.

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