A Gibsonia man pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally engaging in nearly 200 trades of Dick’s Sporting Goods securities on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Frank T. Poerio, Jr., 62, pleaded guilty to four counts of securities fraud before U.S. District Judge Marilyn J. Horan.

The plea was announced in a Thursday news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The DOJ said Poerio obtained material nonpublic information from a Dick’s Sporting Goods employee to conduct the trades between August 2019 and May 2021. According to a May news release, Poerio worked in a data analytics role at the company’s corporate offices in Moon Township.

The May release announcing the charges indicated several of the trades happened before the sporting goods company released periodic earnings statements, when Dick’s employees were prohibited from trading in the company’s securities.

Poerio gained $823,000 in profit from the trades, according to the DOJ.

“Frank Poerio admitted to gaming the system by using material non-public information from a company employee to conduct well more than a hundred trades over the course of several years that resulted in nearly a million dollars in profit,” said U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan.

Horan scheduled sentencing for Oct. 31. For each count, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison, a $5 million fine or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory C. Melucci prosecuted the case.