{"investigation":{"slug":"fan-yang-jocelyn-yang-and-jing-tian","entity_name":"Fan Yang (Jocelyn Yang) and Jing Tian","trust_score":5,"severity_base":null,"score_modifier":0,"confidence":0.82,"status":"draft","content_type":"investigation","summary":"Fan Yang, also known as \"Jocelyn Yang,\" and her husband Jing Tian, of Carmel, Indiana, pleaded guilty on September 15, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Prosecutors allege that Yang, a corporate development manager and strategy finance controller at an Indiana manufacturer identified by multiple news outlets as Cummins Inc., used material non-public information about Cummins's confidential 2021-2022 negotiations to acquire Meritor Inc. to trade ahead of the public announcement and to tip at least five other people. Despite this case having been flagged for review as a \"crypto insider trading\" matter, every primary and secondary source located describes conventional equity securities trading in Meritor common stock; no source reviewed mentions cryptocurrency, digital assets, or blockchain-based trading in connection with this scheme.","sections":[{"content":"Fan Yang, 35 (also referred to as 39 in the U.S. Attorney's December 2025 charging announcement), and her husband Jing Tian, 36 (also referred to as 37 at the indictment stage), of Carmel, Indiana, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced. The office's press release, announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, states that Yang \"abused her corporate position by tipping confidential, market-moving information about a multi-billion-dollar acquisition, fueling an insider trading scheme that gave herself, her husband Jing Tian, and others an unfair advantage over the investing public.\" As part of their plea agreements, both defendants agreed to forfeit all traceable profits derived from the scheme under federal forfeiture law. The discrepancy in reported ages (35/36 at the plea stage versus 39/37 at the indictment stage roughly nine months earlier) appears in the respective press materials and has not been independently reconciled in available sources.","heading":"Guilty Plea to Securities Fraud Conspiracy (September 15, 2026)","sources":[{"url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-insider-trading-scheme","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC): Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Insider Trading Scheme","type":"regulatory","credibility":1},{"url":"https://www.congressheightsontherise.com/blog/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-to-insider-trading-scheme","name":"Congress Heights on the Rise — reposting of DOJ press release on the guilty plea","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://youarecurrent.com/2026/09/17/carmel-couple-pleads-guilty-to-insider-trading-charges/","name":"Current in Carmel (youarecurrent.com) — \"Carmel couple pleads guilty to insider trading charges\"","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"critical"},{"content":"According to the original indictment, Yang held a position as Corporate Development Manager and Strategy Finance Controller at an Indiana-based industrial manufacturer that \"designs, manufactures and distributes engines, filtration and power generation products.\" The charging document itself refers to the employer only as \"Company 1\" and the acquisition target as \"Company 2,\" but multiple news outlets, including The Indiana Lawyer and Yahoo Finance, matched the described details to Cummins Inc. of Columbus, Indiana, and its 2022 acquisition of Meritor Inc., a Troy, Michigan-based automotive components manufacturer. Cummins publicly announced on February 22, 2022, a definitive agreement to acquire Meritor for $36.50 per share — a 48% premium over Meritor's prior closing price — in an all-cash deal valued at $3.7 billion; Meritor's stock rose roughly 44% before markets opened that day. Prosecutors allege Yang began collecting material non-public information (MNPI) about the pending deal starting in October 2021, and that beginning in November 2021 she and Tian, who also worked at the same company, discussed and executed purchases of Meritor securities ahead of the public announcement, communicating in Chinese-language messaging apps. In one message cited by prosecutors, Yang wrote to Tian: \"We have over 100,000 in there. If the acquisition is completed with 3.5b, we can get a Tesla. Trade in and don't need a loan haha.\" In another cited exchange, Yang told a trading associate the target stock would \"go up $10 per share,\" adding \"this is definitely not luck.\" These specific factual details originate in the indictment and are treated here as alleged, though the guilty plea establishes that Yang and Tian have admitted to conspiring to commit securities fraud in connection with this scheme.","heading":"The Underlying Scheme: Corporate Position and Alleged Exploitation of Material Non-Public Information","sources":[{"url":"https://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/59536.php","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC) indictment press release, mirrored — \"Indiana Couple Charged in an Indictment Filed in D.C. with Securities Fraud for Insider Trading\"","type":"regulatory","credibility":1},{"url":"https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/indiana-couple-accused-of-insider-trading-on-3-7b-acquisition","name":"The Indiana Lawyer — \"Indiana couple accused of insider trading on $3.7B acquisition\"","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.ttnews.com/articles/cummins-buy-parts-manufacturer-meritor-37-billion","name":"Transport Topics — \"Cummins to Buy Parts Manufacturer Meritor for $3.7 Billion\"","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://hoodline.com/2025/12/indiana-couple-charged-in-washington-d-c-with-alleged-insider-trading-over-3-7-billion-acquisition/","name":"Hoodline — \"Indiana Couple Charged in Washington D.C. With Alleged Insider Trading Over $3.7 Billion Acquisition\"","type":"news_article","credibility":3}],"severity":"critical"},{"content":"Prosecutors allege that Yang and Tian shared the confidential acquisition information with a group that grew to include at least five other people: two graduate students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., one of the students' wives, a college friend of one of the defendants, and an associate of Yang's, with trading activity also allegedly reaching a trader located in China. According to reporting on the indictment, individual trading profits attributed to members of the group included at least $178,000 for one trader, at least $144,000 for another, at least $86,989 for a third, and at least $56,000 for that trader's mother, with the conspiracy as a whole generating \"hundreds of thousands of dollars\" in illegal profits before Cummins's February 22, 2022 announcement. None of the alleged tippees are named in available public reporting, and it is not clear from available sources whether any of them have been separately charged.","heading":"Network of Tippees and Alleged Co-Conspirators","sources":[{"url":"https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/indiana-couple-accused-of-insider-trading-on-3-7b-acquisition","name":"The Indiana Lawyer — \"Indiana couple accused of insider trading on $3.7B acquisition\"","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/59536.php","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC) indictment press release, mirrored","type":"regulatory","credibility":1}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"Yang and Tian were arrested and charged by way of an indictment unsealed on December 9, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, each facing two counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The case was announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro and investigated by the FBI's Washington Field Office; at the indictment stage the prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Rosenberg and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Rami Sibay, while the guilty-plea announcement credits Assistant U.S. Attorney Sridhar Kaza. No parallel civil enforcement action by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was identified in available public sources as of this writing; this investigation should not be read as confirming or ruling out an SEC civil proceeding.","heading":"Indictment and Prosecution Timeline","sources":[{"url":"https://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/59536.php","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC) indictment press release, mirrored","type":"regulatory","credibility":1},{"url":"https://www.congressheightsontherise.com/blog/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-to-insider-trading-scheme","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC): Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Insider Trading Scheme (mirrored)","type":"regulatory","credibility":1}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"Yang and Tian are scheduled to be sentenced on January 15, 2027. The U.S. Attorney's Office states the pair \"face a maximum of five years in prison\" on the conspiracy count. As of this writing, sentencing has not occurred and no sentence has been imposed; the maximum described in the DOJ release is a statutory ceiling, not a prediction of the sentence the court will actually impose.","heading":"Pending Sentencing (January 2027)","sources":[{"url":"https://www.congressheightsontherise.com/blog/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-to-insider-trading-scheme","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC): Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Insider Trading Scheme (mirrored)","type":"regulatory","credibility":1}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"This entity was flagged for AVOID.NET review as a \"crypto insider trading\" case, but no source located during this investigation — including the DOJ's own press releases on both the indictment and the guilty plea, and independent reporting from The Indiana Lawyer, Hoodline, Current in Carmel, and Transport Topics — makes any reference to cryptocurrency, digital assets, exchanges, wallets, or blockchain-based trading. Every source consistently describes conventional purchases of Meritor Inc. common stock (a NYSE-listed equity security) executed through ordinary brokerage channels. AVOID.NET should treat the \"crypto\" framing of this case as unsubstantiated pending discovery of a source that documents such activity; this page has been written to reflect the securities-fraud conduct actually supported by the record.","heading":"Cryptocurrency Involvement: Not Substantiated","sources":[{"url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-insider-trading-scheme","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC): Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Insider Trading Scheme","type":"regulatory","credibility":1},{"url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/indiana-couple-charged-indictment-filed-dc-securities-fraud-insider-trading","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC): Indiana Couple Charged in an Indictment Filed in D.C. with Securities Fraud for Insider Trading","type":"regulatory","credibility":1}],"severity":"medium"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2021-10","event":"Fan Yang allegedly begins collecting material non-public information about her employer's planned acquisition of a Michigan-based automotive components manufacturer.","source":"DOJ indictment press release","source_url":"https://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/59536.php"},{"date":"2021-11","event":"Yang and Tian allegedly begin discussing and executing purchases of the target company's (Meritor's) securities ahead of the public deal announcement.","source":"DOJ / reporting on the indictment","source_url":"https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/indiana-couple-accused-of-insider-trading-on-3-7b-acquisition"},{"date":"2022-02-22","event":"Cummins Inc. publicly announces its $3.7 billion agreement to acquire Meritor Inc.; Meritor shares rise roughly 44% before market open.","source":"The Indiana Lawyer","source_url":"https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/indiana-couple-accused-of-insider-trading-on-3-7b-acquisition","date_evidence":"On Feb. 22, 2022, Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins announced that it planned to acquire Meritor for $36.50 per share of Meritor stock, for a total transaction value of $3.7 billion."},{"date":"2025-12-09","event":"Fan Yang and Jing Tian are arrested and charged via an indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, each on two counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.","source":"DOJ (USAO-DC) press release, mirrored","source_url":"https://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/59536.php","date_evidence":"Dateline \"9 December 2025\": \"Fan Yang, 39, and Jing Tian, 37, both of Indianapolis, were arrested and charged in an indictment unsealed today for conspiring to commit securities fraud for allegedly using insider information to profit from a $3.7 billion corporate acquisition, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.\""},{"date":"2026-09-15","event":"Yang and Tian plead guilty before U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and agree to forfeit traceable profits from the scheme.","source":"DOJ (USAO-DC) press release, mirrored","source_url":"https://www.congressheightsontherise.com/blog/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-to-insider-trading-scheme","date_evidence":"\"Fan Yang, also known as 'Jocelyn Yang,' 35, and her husband, Jing Tian, 36, of Carmel, Indiana, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to charges arising from an insider trading conspiracy, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.\" (DOJ press release, published under a September 15, 2026 dateline; independently reported as \"pleaded guilty Sept. 15 in federal court\" by Current in Carmel.)"},{"date":"2027-01-15","event":"Yang and Tian are scheduled to be sentenced, facing a statutory maximum of five years in prison.","source":"DOJ (USAO-DC) press release, mirrored","source_url":"https://www.congressheightsontherise.com/blog/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-to-insider-trading-scheme","date_evidence":"\"The pair face a maximum of five years in prison when they are sentenced on January 15, 2027.\""}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-insider-trading-scheme","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC): Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Insider Trading Scheme","type":"regulatory","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260916112459/https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-insider-trading-scheme","credibility":1,"archive_timestamp":"2026-09-16T11:24:59+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/indiana-couple-charged-indictment-filed-dc-securities-fraud-insider-trading","name":"DOJ (USAO-DC): Indiana Couple Charged in an Indictment Filed in D.C. with Securities Fraud for Insider Trading","type":"regulatory","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260524073837/https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/indiana-couple-charged-indictment-filed-dc-securities-fraud-insider-trading","credibility":1,"archive_timestamp":"2026-05-24T07:38:37+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.congressheightsontherise.com/blog/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-to-insider-trading-scheme","name":"Congress Heights on the Rise — reposting of DOJ guilty-plea press release","type":"news_article","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260921005859/https://www.congressheightsontherise.com/blog/husband-and-wife-plead-guilty-to-insider-trading-scheme","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-09-21T00:58:59+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/59536.php","name":"Carsandracingstuff.com — reposting of DOJ indictment press release","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260921085059/https://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/59536.php","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-09-21T08:50:59+00:00"},{"url":"https://youarecurrent.com/2026/09/17/carmel-couple-pleads-guilty-to-insider-trading-charges/","name":"Current in Carmel (youarecurrent.com) — \"Carmel couple pleads guilty to insider trading charges\"","type":"news_article","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260921001515/https://youarecurrent.com/2026/09/17/carmel-couple-pleads-guilty-to-insider-trading-charges/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-09-21T00:15:15+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/indiana-couple-accused-of-insider-trading-on-3-7b-acquisition","name":"The Indiana Lawyer — \"Indiana couple accused of insider trading on $3.7B acquisition\"","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260121224927/https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/indiana-couple-accused-of-insider-trading-on-3-7b-acquisition","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-01-21T22:49:27+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.ttnews.com/articles/cummins-buy-parts-manufacturer-meritor-37-billion","name":"Transport Topics — \"Cummins to Buy Parts Manufacturer Meritor for $3.7 Billion\"","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260422060217/https://www.ttnews.com/articles/cummins-buy-parts-manufacturer-meritor-37-billion","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-04-22T06:02:17+00:00"},{"url":"https://hoodline.com/2025/12/indiana-couple-charged-in-washington-d-c-with-alleged-insider-trading-over-3-7-billion-acquisition/","name":"Hoodline — \"Indiana Couple Charged in Washington D.C. With Alleged Insider Trading Over $3.7 Billion Acquisition\"","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260110080701/https://hoodline.com/2025/12/indiana-couple-charged-in-washington-d-c-with-alleged-insider-trading-over-3-7-billion-acquisition/","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-01-10T08:07:01+00:00"}],"source_tags":[],"addresses":[],"reviewed":false,"reviewed_by":null,"model_used":"claude-code-investigator","created_at":"2026-09-20T23:11:55.369978+00:00","updated_at":"2026-09-21T08:59:16.38198+00:00"}}