The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has named Izunna Okonkwo, co-founder of the tech start-up Pastel and a 2023 Forbes 30-under-30 honoree, as a person of interest in a major insider trading and money laundering investigation. Authorities allege that Okonkwo was involved in a scheme that generated $41 million (around N59.5 billion) in illicit profits over five years.
Court documents from the U.S. District Court for New Jersey, reported by Peoples Gazette, suggest that the 30-year-old entrepreneur became a co-conspirator after investigators traced multiple stock trades and profit-sharing arrangements connected to a confidential deal.
Okonkwo, who completed graduate studies at Stanford University, is alleged to have purchased stocks using non-public information provided by investment banker Gyunho Justin Kim, which was relayed through his friend, Saad Shoukat. Kim and Shoukat reportedly met in 2018 during separate internships and later exploited their friendship to pass along sensitive information about upcoming acquisitions.
Shoukat is said to have shared the confidential tips with Okonkwo and other associates, while Okonkwo allegedly knew the source of the information and even offered to help Kim secure employment after benefiting from the illicit trades for years.
Kim, formerly part of Citibank’s investment group in San Francisco, had access to confidential acquisition data. According to an FBI complaint filed on November 24, 2025, Okonkwo and Shoukat communicated via encrypted messaging apps about the pending Reata deal before it was publicly announced. They reportedly agreed that Shoukat could trade using Okonkwo’s brokerage accounts, splitting the profits 50-50.
During Gilead’s $21 billion acquisition of Immunomedics in 2020, Okonkwo and other co-conspirators allegedly purchased shares ahead of the public announcement, resulting in multi-million-dollar gains. The FBI traced logins to Okonkwo’s accounts to a London residence, where Shoukat was also conducting trades. Okonkwo reportedly earned $2.3 million from this deal.
Subsequent buyouts, including Amgen’s acquisition of Five Prime in 2022, GSK’s purchase of Sierra, Pfizer’s $5.4 billion takeover of GBT, Biogen’s Reata acquisition, and AbbVie’s acquisition of Immonogen, allegedly yielded Okonkwo millions more, with relatives and Shoukat also profiting.
Pastel, co-founded in 2021 by Okonkwo alongside Stanford alumni Olamide Oladeji and Abuzar Royesh, received a $5.5 million seed funding round shortly after Okonkwo allegedly collected $3.5 million from the Pfizer deal.
Federal prosecutors told U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hammer that the illicit earnings from the scheme totaled at least $41 million. Kim faces six counts of insider trading, wire fraud, and money laundering. Okonkwo, identified as a dual Nigerian-American citizen with operations in Nigeria and Atlanta, has not been confirmed to be in custody.
The revelations raise serious questions about Nigeria’s tech sector, where Okonkwo had been running Pastel from Yaba, Lagos, and establishing offices in Atlanta since 2022.
