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Bothell man accused of securities fraud commits suicide in New Jersey

A Bothell man suspected of leaking insider information on clinical trials at Seattle Genetics jumped to his death last week from an airport parking garage in New Jersey, according to police and documents filed in federal court.

By Mike Carter

Seattle Times staff reporter

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A Bothell man suspected of leaking insider information on clinical trials at Seattle Genetics jumped to his death last week from an airport parking garage in New Jersey, according to police and documents filed in federal court.

A New Jersey police official familiar with the case said Zizhong (James) Fan, 39, jumped from the fourth floor of the garage at Newark Liberty International Airport at about 8 p.m. Thursday. He died at a nearby hospital that night.

The official said Fan was on his way to Seattle to surrender to authorities.

The FBI had obtained a 13-count securities-fraud indictment against Fan and his brother, Zishen (Brandon) Fan, of Chino Hills, Calif., on Wednesday. The charge carries penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Zizhong Fan had a copy of the complaint and was to catch a plane Thursday night so that he could answer the charges Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the police official said. According to court documents, Zizhong Fan is believed to have traveled to China from Vancouver, B.C., in January, where he allegedly attempted to transfer several hundred thousand dollars from an Ameritrade account to a Chinese bank account in his mother's name. He returned to the U.S. later that month after these transfers were blocked.

On Monday, federal prosecutors in Seattle filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Zizhong Fan, stating that police at the Newark Port Authority had confirmed his death. The document contained no details, and Annette Hayes, the first assistant to U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan, said the office would have no additional comment.

Zishen Fan, 38, appeared Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Donohue in Seattle.

According to the charges and a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this month, Zizhong Fan was manager of clinical programming at the Bothell pharmaceutical firm and had access to insider information about the success of various drugs Seattle Genetics was working on.

In 2010, according to the complaint, Zizhong Fan allegedly provided information to his brother and other relatives about a successful clinical trial for the company's flagship drug, a treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma. Zishen Fan allegedly used that information in setting up a series of trades involving Seattle Genetics stock and options through a private account.

Federal agents and the SEC allege those transactions resulted in nearly $800,000 in illegal profits when the trial results were announced in August and the company's stock prices skyrocketed almost 18 percent.

The SEC contacted both men Jan. 13. Afterward, Zishen Fan allegedly tried to wire several hundred thousand dollars from the U.S. brokerage account to a bank in China, while Zizhong Fan informed his employer Jan. 14 that he was leaving unexpectedly for China and would not return for at least four weeks.

Zizhong Fan had worked at the company about 2-½ years, his attorney told The Seattle Times earlier this month after the SEC lawsuit was filed. Fan lived in Bothell with his wife and two children.

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