A former analyst at Morgan Stanley and her husband, a former hedge-fund analyst at a unit of ING Groep NV, have pleaded guilty to insider-trading charges, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Xujia "Jennifer" Wang, a former vice president in Morgan Stanley's finance department's valuation review group, and her husband, Ruopian "Rubin" Chen, once a senior hedge-fund analyst in ING's New York office, both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of securities fraud for their role in purchasing stocks in advance of three deals, according to the report.

In December 2006, Wang learned that Morgan Stanley had been hired to consult about the potential acquisition of Genesis HealthCare Corp., a nursing-home operator.

From Dec. 29 to Jan. 9, 47,705 U.S. dollars of Genesis call options were purchased in Wang's mother's account, the report quoted the federal complaint as saying. On Jan. 16, Genesis announced it agreed to be acquired by two private-equity firms.

Wang and Chen netted more than 600,000 dollars in illicit profits, said the complaint filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a separate complaint and received a temporary restraining order, which, among other things, freezes the defendants' assets.

The couple are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 7 with federal sentencing guidelines calling for prison terms of 30 months to 37 months. They were arrested in May as part of a broader crackdown on insider trading, according to the report.