Court Battles

Supreme Court won’t hear ex-lawmaker’s bid to toss insider trading conviction

by Ella Lee - 05/18/26 9:58 AM ET

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by Ella Lee - 05/18/26 9:58 AM ET

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The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a former congressman’s bid to toss his conviction on insider trading charges.

Ex-Rep. Stephen Buyer (R-Ind.) was convicted in 2023 on four federal charges tied to hundreds of thousands of dollars he earned trading inside information, which he acquired as a consultant in the telecommunications industry after leaving Congress.

A federal appeals court affirmed his conviction last year, but he denies wrongdoing.

The former congressman asked the justices to decide whether stock trading on an exchange whose physical headquarters is based in Manhattan is enough to require that a case be tried in the Southern District of New York for insider trading charges.

The powerful federal prosecuting office, he said, claims under U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit precedent that it may prosecute “virtually any” insider trading case where a publicly traded stock is involved.

“Today, while the New York Stock Exchange still has its physical headquarters in Manhattan, most trading no longer occurs on its floors; instead, trades execute electronically on computer servers located elsewhere,” his lawyers wrote in his petition to the Supreme Court.

The Justice Department initially waived its right to respond, but the justices asked it to weigh in.

Prosecutors told the high court that lower courts relied on trial evidence showing that Buyer’s trades were at least partially executed in the Southern District of New York, contending that his “factbound objection to the sufficiency of that evidence” doesn’t warrant the justices’ review.

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