A former M&A lawyer has been charged by US prosecutors for an alleged insider trading scheme which involved obtaining information from three leading corporate law firms, writes The Am Law Daily.

Matthew Kluger, a former associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Cravath Swaine & Moore and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, has been charged by federal prosecutors in connection with an alleged scheme to trade on inside information. The scheme is alleged to have netted Kluger and a fellow defendant $32m (£19.7m) over more than a decade.

According to the complaint, filed on Tuesday (5 April), Kluger and professional stock trader Garrett Bauer made trades based on information stolen from Wilson Sonsini.

The two are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts each of obstruction of justice, as well as several counts of securities fraud. The complaint also identifies a third, unnamed co-conspirator involved in the alleged scheme.

The alleged scheme dates back to the mid-1990s. According to the complaint, between 1994 and 2011 Kluger passed along non-public information relating to anticipated corporate M&A that the law firms he was employed by worked on. Kluger was an associate in Cravath's New York office from 1994 to 1997. He was an associate at Skadden from 1998 to 2001, working in the firm's New York and Palo Alto offices. From late 2005 until March 2011, Kluger worked for Wilson Sonsini, the complaint says.

Kluger originally traded on deals he was working on personally but later, the complaint says, in an effort to avoid detection, he passed along information about deals which he learned about by searching Wilson Sonsini's computer system. "Specifically, Kluger searched Wilson Sonsini's document management system to identify documents relating to other ongoing corporate M&A transactions," the complaint says.

"Instead of actually opening documents, Kluger viewed the titles of documents and other information that was available in the document management system. Kluger did so in order to obtain inside information without creating a digital record that he had viewed the documents."

The deals Kluger and his alleged co-conspirators traded on include Oracle Corp's acquisition of Wilson Sonsini client Sun Microsystems; Hewlett-Packard Company's acquisition of client 3Com; and Intel Corp's purchase of client McAfee.

Evan Chesler, the presiding partner of Cravath, says the firm was only contacted about the case shortly before the charges were announced federal prosecutors in New Jersey. "Our position of course is that we condemn this kind of conduct and we'll cooperate with the prosecutors," Chesler said. The firm is currently reviewing files from Kluger's time at the firm but Chesler noted he left the firm almost 15 years ago. Chesler did not immediately know under what terms the former associate left the firm.

A spokesman for Skadden said: "We have strict policies that protect our clients' confidential information, which we monitor closely. It would be deeply disappointing if these policies were not followed in this instance. We are cooperating fully with the US Government in this matter."

A spokeswoman for Wilson Sonsini said: "We were shocked to learn of the conduct the Government has alleged a former employee committed against us and two other prominent law firms. We have provided our full support to the federal investigation and will continue to do so. In light of the pending actions by the US Attorney's Office and the [Securities and Exchange Commission], we are not in a position to comment further."

The prosecution comes amid a renewed push by US authorities to clamp down on insider trading and market abuse. In January 2011, Arthur Cutillo, a former associate of Ropes & Gray who had been charged in the Galleon Group insider-trading case, pleaded guilty to insider trading and conspiracy charges.

The Am Law Daily is a US affiliate title of Legal Week.