Remember Cheng Yi Liang, the FDA chemist I wrote about here back in April? The SEC claims Liang used information he learned at the FDA about upcoming announcements of FDA drug approval decisions as the basis for insider trading that generated more than $3.6 million in illegal profits and avoided losses. The SEC named several other individuals, including Liang's son Andrew Liang, as "relief defendants" because the older Liang traded in their accounts. Federal prosecutors also went after Liang and his son on the insider trading allegations, and brought criminal cases against them earlier this year. As part of this prosecution, the FBI raided the Liang home in March and April 2011 and seized a MacBook laptop computer reportedly belonging to Andrew Liang.

On August 29, Bloomberg reports, prosecutors told the court that the criminal cases against the Liangs were being postponed because “the parties are near resolution of this matter.” But just when it looked like the Liangs might have reached a turning point in the case, Andrew Liang was charged yesterday with possessing child pornography, and prosecutors have now asked that he forfeit the seized MacBook laptop. The Examiner reports that affidavits filed in the case assert that authorities found "several images" of child pornography on Andrew Liang's laptop. Bloomberg reports that Liang faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the child pornography charge.

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