Federal prosecutors in New York charged a former Merck & Co Inc employee with conspiracy to commit fraud for tipping a contact about potential mergers, including Merck's takeover of Idenix Pharmaceuticals ahead of a public announcement in June, according to a court filing on Tuesday. In charging Zachary Zwerko, the filing referred only to "the pharmaceutical company where he was employed at the time." But his profile on the business networking site LinkedIn describes him as a former senior analyst for Merck and his attorney confirmed that Zwerko worked at Merck during the relevant period. The lawyer declined to comment on the case. The complaint said Zwerko, who was a senior finance analyst in his company's financial evaluation and analysis group, passed information to a trader at an unnamed bank with whom he had attended Rutgers Business School. The trader, who is not charged in the complaint, allegedly traded on Zwerko's tips about Idenix and two other stocks: Ardea Biosciences
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