(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A former official for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond was sentenced on Tuesday to 24 months imprisonment for misappropriating internal Fed information to engage in insider trading.
The defendant, Robert Brian Thompson, 43, of Mosley, worked as a bank examiner and senior manager with supervisory duties for the Federal Reserve—giving him access to confidential information about financial institutions under the Fed’s supervision, including confidential supervisory information.
According to the Justice Department, Thompson used confidential information from his workplace to execute 69 trades in seven different publicly traded financial institutions for a total of $771,678 from October 2020 through February 2024.
To conceal the scheme, Thompson lied on his “Form D”—which, among other things, requires employees to disclose if they have any assets, including any equity interest in any banks that are members of the Federal Reserve system.
“Thompson falsely represented on the FRBR’s Form D that he had no assets,” the DOJ said last November in a press release.
Thompson pled guilty to one count of insider trading and one count of making false statements. He faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the insider trading count—as well as five years in prison on the false statements count.
Leading up to Thompson’s Tuesday sentencing, the DOJ asked Judge M. Hannah Lauck to give him a sentence of 30-37 months.
The Federal Reserve also filed a “victim impact statement,” asking for an “appropriate” sentence.
The Federal Reserve submitted a "victim impact letter" leading up to the sentencing of an ex-Fed official for insider trading. I guess the U.S. government considers the Fed a victim here?
The DOJ asked for 30-37 months, but the banker successfully motioned for a downward variance… pic.twitter.com/4HDrDbK4hT— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) March 26, 2025
“Mr. Thompson’s actions violated our well established and well communicated policies, as well as the public’s trust. This deception provided him personal financial gain at the high cost of our integrity,” said Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin in a letter to Judge Lauck last Thursday.
“The Bank’s reputation was maligned due to his willful disregard of our policies, false attestations and misrepresentation of his actions. For these reasons, we hope that you will consider a sentence appropriate for Mr. Thompson’s betrayal of our mission and of the American public,” the central banker added.
For his part, Thompson successfully motioned for a downward variance. Judge Lauck accepted Thompson’s motion at his sentencing after arguments were made on Tuesday. A transcript of the arguments is not yet publicly available, so it’s not clear how the ex-Fed official was able to convince the judge to lessen his sentence.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
