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by Mike Caswell

Ross Haghighat, the Boston man charged for tipping relatives and others ahead of the 2023 takeover of Vancouver-Seattle biopharmaceutical listing Chinook Therapeutics Inc., denies that he did anything wrong. He claims that his associates bought the stock amidst favourable coverage from reputable investment banks. They "rode the wave of public sentiment" and profitably invested in a company they were already following, Mr. Haghighat says.

The statements from Mr. Haghighat come in response to charges filed by federal prosecutors in New Jersey. They claim that he was part of a scheme that generated $600,000 in gains from a $3.2-billion takeover offer made by Novartis AG in 2023. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) He learned about the takeover through board meetings, the government said.

The charges have no connection to Mr. Haghighat's other position at the time, as the chairman of Sernova Biotherapeutics Inc., a Toronto Stock Exchange listing. He left that position on May 24, 2025, the day after Stockwatch reported the charges against him. (Mr. Haghighat had been aware of the charges for weeks by that point. While the matter was not yet public, court records show that he made his first appearance before a judge on April 30.)

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