Nikas allegedly had another source of intel: Telemaque Lavidas, 38, a fellow Greek, whose father was on the board of Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. Lavidas picked up tips about Ariad having to halt clinical trials or being in talks to sell from his father and fed them to Nikas, who made millions of dollars trading on the information, prosecutors say. Lavidas was arrested in New York and has asked to be freed on bail, claiming his role in the conspiracy was “relatively small.”

The poker-playing securities trader, Joseph El-Khouri, 52, was arrested by police in the U.K. on Monday. El-Khouri allegedly traded on inside information obtained from the two London bankers: Benjamin Taylor, 35, who worked at Moelis & Co. and Darina Windsor, 32, who was at Centerview Partners LLC.

For a while the two bankers shared an apartment in London, were romantically involved and called each other Pops and Popsy in messages. For example, in October 2012 Windsor sent an email to Taylor titled “Once upon a time, there was a Pops searching for Truffles in the Forest...,“ according to the indictment. Confidential information was allegedly attached to the email.

They were paid at least $1 million in cash and other benefits, according to the prosecutors. Now, Taylor is in France and Windsor is in her native Thailand, prosecutors said.

El-Khouri’s Tips
El-Khouri received tips from Taylor and Windsor through a friend and sent gifts back in return, knowing they would be given to the couple, prosecutors said.

Taylor passed price-sensitive information for 16 transactions related to U.S. stocks that he and Windsor got at work, which was passed on to a network of traders in Switzerland and London, prosecutors said.

In one January 2013 deal, Taylor accessed confidential merger details regarding Life Technologies Corp., even though he wasn’t assigned to the project. Taylor passed those documents to an unnamed trader who then either directly or indirectly sent them to a reporter at a Canadian newspaper, the SEC said. Days later, the outlet published that Life Technologies was exploring a sale, sending its shares soaring.

Lavidas’s lawyer Reed Smith points out in his bail request that the statute of limitations may have run out on some of the crimes. The statute of limitations for wire fraud is five years, unless it affects a financial institution -- then it’s 10 years.

“Two of the nine counts against Mr. Lavidas are likely time barred as they are for wire fraud activities that allegedly occurred in 2013,” Smith wrote.

The FBI, which is part of the case, is still investigating.