They started using coded messages, using the terms “socks” and “shoes” to refer to SIM cards and burner phones, respectively. They also used “greens” to refer to money and “running” for insider trading.
One conversation between Ge and Safi went like this:
Safi: Hi bro. Just arrived home
Ge: All good.
Safi: Did you get the shoes with the socks?
Ge: Yeah. 1 shoe. I didn’t get my greens tho hahahahhaah? But its all cool our friend and I have an understanding
Safi: Is that shoe good for running? Can you run against 5-8 guys with it? The greens you will pick up next time you come before the Trop (Trip). But we have a [ clapping hands emoji] on that
Ge: Ok. Yea can run.
In that same month, Ge began recruiting other traders to the scheme, including a co-conspirator who lived in Singapore.
Calling it a “serious business opportunity” that was “pretty sensitive” with a “huge upside”, he said he would be willing to fly back to discuss it.
He offered this co-conspirator non-public information about the planned acquisition of Banvit SA, a Turkish poultry processing company, by BRF SA, a Brazilian firm. That deal was not announced until about two months later.
Ge also messaged Safi that he needed to change SIM cards in order to keep the scheme secret, saying his “socks” do not work in Milan and that he would be throwing away his current SIM card.
Safi told him to get his “shoes clean” and to get “the other socks”, saying that new socks and shoes are “a must”.
He apparently told Ge to onboard more people to “give them appetite for the game”, and that the “race is on the way”.
