UPDATE 3-NY man charged with insider trading on wife's info

(Adds details of other defendants and quote from lawyer)

By Grant McCool

NEW YORK, Dec 18 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities said on Thursday a former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc salesman tipped friends and relatives with inside information about 13 impending mergers by divulging confidential information he got from his wife, a public relations executive.

Matthew Devlin, of New York City, was charged with participating in an insider trading scheme, a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan showed. Two day traders, a lawyer and a brokerage salesman were also charged with illegal trades that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said netted $4.8 million in illegal profits.

The complaint said Devlin should have known not to divulge confidential information his wife, Nina, shared with him.

His wife is a partner in public relations firm Brunswick Group LLC and she was not charged in the case.

Brunswick said in a statement: "The husband of a Brunswick employee has been arrested by U.S. authorities for using information obtained illegally from her and without her knowledge, which has then passed to third parties."

The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said Matthew Devlin, 35, entered a plea of guilty on Dec. 16 before U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones to a complaint charging him with four counts of conspiracy to commit insider trading and one count of securities fraud.

It said day traders Jamil Bouchareb, 27, and Daniel Corbin, 32, of Miami Beach, Florida and former Lehman employee Frederick Bowers, 40, and a lawyer Eric Holzer, 34, of New York City were arrested on Thursday on charges of conspiracy and securities fraud.