Jason Satsky was the co-head of Americas power and renewable energy investment banking at Bank of America, one of the most senior energy dealmakers on Wall Street, and the lead banker advising South Jersey Industries, Inc. on its potential sale. Gavin Wolfe was his close friend of more than 20 years, a former colleague who ran his own firm, Evergreen Capital. According to the SEC, in late 2021 Satsky tipped Wolfe with material nonpublic information about the pending acquisition of South Jersey Industries, and Wolfe acted on it in size. Between November and December 2021, Wolfe purchased more than 2.2 million shares of South Jersey stock at a total cost of at least $53 million, spread across a web of entities he controlled. On February 24, 2022, South Jersey announced it had agreed to be acquired by a private investment fund at $36 per share in a deal valuing the company at $8.1 billion. The stock jumped approximately 40%. Wolfe made approximately $18.5 million. On August 21, 2026, the SEC charged both men with insider trading in the Southern District of New York.
The SEC’s complaint charges Wolfe and Satsky with violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5, and seeks permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and officer-and-director bars against both, disgorgement and prejudgment interest against Wolfe, and a conduct-based injunction against Satsky. The complaint names the eight entities through which Wolfe allegedly traded, including Evergreen Capital L.P., Evergreen Financial LLC, Empire Property Management LLC, and GAW Holdings, as relief defendants, seeking to recover the trading profits held in those entities. The acquirer was Infrastructure Investments Fund, a private investment vehicle backed by JPMorgan.
A Tip at a Nationally Televised Basketball Game
The relationship between the two men is central to the case. Satsky and Wolfe had been close friends and business colleagues for more than two decades. According to reporting on the SEC’s complaint, among the occasions on which they communicated about the possible acquisition was a nationally televised college basketball game that the two men attended together with their wives in November 2021. That detail captures the nature of the alleged tipping: this was not an anonymous leak but information passing between two long-time friends in the ordinary course of a close personal relationship, at a basketball game, over the period when Wolfe was building his position. Satsky, as the lead banker on the transaction, held the most sensitive possible knowledge of the deal’s progress, and Wolfe, as his friend of 20 years, was positioned to receive it.
The scale of Wolfe’s trading reflected confidence that the deal would happen. Committing $53 million to more than 2.2 million shares of a single stock is an enormous concentrated bet, the kind an investor makes only when the outcome feels close to certain. When the $8.1 billion buyout was announced and the stock rose roughly 40%, that confidence was vindicated to the tune of $18.5 million. The SEC also alleges that Wolfe tipped others who traded on the information, generating approximately $515,000 in additional profits beyond his own gains.
A Banker Who Described His Close Friend as Ordinary Coverage
When questioned, Satsky allegedly mischaracterized his relationship with Wolfe to conceal the tipping. According to the complaint, Satsky described his relationship with Wolfe only as “client and former power/utilities banker, periodic ordinary course coverage.” He did not disclose their close personal friendship of more than 20 years, nor their frequent contacts during the period when the South Jersey deal was live. Recasting a decades-long friendship as routine professional coverage is the kind of characterization that, if accepted, would make the flow of information between the two men look innocuous. The SEC’s complaint frames it instead as an effort to hide the true nature of a relationship through which, it alleges, material nonpublic information passed.
False Statements to the FBI and a Slow-Moving Investigation
The investigation moved quietly for years before the charges. Bank of America became aware of a U.S. inquiry and placed Satsky on leave, and later dismissed him in early 2026 as part of a broader wave of job cuts, though the bank had not concluded he did anything wrong. In February 2024, FBI agents questioned Wolfe about his South Jersey trading. According to the SEC, Wolfe told the agents, among other things, that he did not recall directing the South Jersey stock purchases in the entities he controlled, and that the idea to buy South Jersey stock may not have originated with him. The complaint alleges those statements were false and misleading, and that Wolfe well knew he alone had made the decision and given the direction to make the purchases. Lying to federal agents about who directed a $53 million stock purchase is the kind of statement that tends to deepen rather than resolve an investigation. The pattern of trading securities on confidential information obtained through a professional role echoes the case against Jesse Mitchell of The Trade Desk, who traded on earnings he saw before their release.
Conclusion
Jason Satsky sat at the top of Bank of America’s energy banking practice and led the advisory work on South Jersey Industries’ $8.1 billion sale. According to the SEC, he handed the knowledge of that pending deal to Gavin Wolfe, his friend of more than 20 years, including at a televised basketball game they attended with their wives. Wolfe put $53 million into South Jersey stock across eight entities, made $18.5 million when the buyout was announced and the stock jumped 40%, and tipped others who made $515,000 more. When the FBI asked him about it, he said he did not recall directing the trades. Satsky described his decades-long friendship as routine coverage. The SEC charged both in August 2026. The tip, the SEC says, traveled the length of a 20-year friendship. So did the $18.5 million.
