A broker-dealer who once called Colts Neck home admits his role in a multi-million-dollar insider trading scheme and risks decades in prison.

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In a federal courtroom in Trenton, Vladimir Eydelman, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud, one count of tender-offer fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit securities and tender offer fraud, according to the office of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

The arrangement lasted about five years, involved illegal trading ahead of at least 13 corporate transaction proposals, and generated more than $5.6 million in illicit profits, authorities said.

Eydelman has a December 21 sentencing date. The conspiracy charge carries a possible prison term of up to five years and a fine up ot $250,000. But the fraud charges hold a maximum 20 year sentence, with fines up to $5 million, plus forfeit of all criminal proceeds.

A second defendant, Frank Tamayo, 42, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to identical charges in September 2014. A third, Steven Metro, 41, of Katonah, New York, pleaded not guilty and has a trial date of February 8, 2016.

Investigators believe that the chain of inside information went from Metro to Tamayo to Eydelman. Metro was employed at the Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP law firm and had attended law school with Tamayo, authorities said. Eydelman was employed as a broker-dealer at Oppenheimer & Co. and later at Morgan Stanley.

Metro is accused of scouring the company's computers for information related to corporate actions such as mergers, acquisitions and tender offers in which the firm represented an entity, and passing it to Tamayo personally in bars or diners near their respective Manhattan offices. Tamayo relayed it to Eydelman in similar environs, including Grand Central Terminal, authorities said.

Eydelman used the data to buy securities for himself and Tamayo, as well as for family members, friends and clients, then quickly sold them once the transactions were publicized and stock prices climbed, investigators said.

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