SEC Charges Stockbroker and Friend With Insider Trading
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a stockbroker and his friend with participating in an insider trading scheme to profit in advance of two major announcements out of a pharmaceutical company. The SEC alleges that Paul T. Rampoldi coordinated the insider trading with two other brokers at his firm as well as a then-IT executive at Ardea Biosciences. The Ardea employee tipped one of the brokers ahead of the company’s announcement of an agreement to license a cancer drug and later tipped him in advance of its acquisition by AstraZeneca PLC. The SEC charged the other two brokers and…
Read MoreSEC Charges Former Professional Football Player With Running $10 Million Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Merrill Robertson Jr., a former player for the Philadelphia Eagles, with defrauding investors, including coaches he knew from his time playing football for the Fork Union Military Academy and the University of Virginia. The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in Richmond, Virginia, charges Robertson, Sherman C. Vaughn Jr., and the company they co-owned, Cavalier Union Investments LLC. According to the complaint, the defendants promised to invest in diversified holdings but diverted nearly $6 million of the more than $10 million they raised from investors to pay for personal expenses and used other…
Read MoreKristin Snyder Named Co-Head of SEC’s Investment Adviser/Investment Company Examination Program
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Kristin Snyder has been named Co-National Associate Director of the Investment Adviser/Investment Company examination program in the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE). She joins Co-National Associate Director Jane Jarcho who has led the program since August 20, 2013 and was named OCIE’s Deputy Director on February 3, 2016. Together, Ms. Jarcho and Ms. Snyder oversee more than 520 lawyers, accountants, and examiners responsible for inspections of SEC registered investment advisers and investment companies. Ms. Snyder has been the Associate Regional Director for Examinations in the SEC’s San Francisco office since…
Read MoreCompany Paying Penalty for Violating Key Whistleblower Protection Rule
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that an Atlanta-based building products distributor is settling charges that it violated securities laws by using severance agreements that required outgoing employees to waive their rights to monetary recovery should they file a charge or complaint with the SEC or other federal agencies. BlueLinx Holdings Inc. has agreed to pay a $265,000 penalty. According to the SEC’s order, BlueLinx added the monetary recovery prohibition to all of its severance agreements in mid-2013, nearly two years after the SEC’s adoption of Rule 21F-17 that prohibits any action to impede someone from communicating with the…
Read MoreSEC Charges Cardiologist With Insider Trading on Confidential Drug Trial Developments
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a cardiologist with insider trading on confidential developments as he worked on a clinical drug trial. The SEC alleges that Dr. Edward Kosinski of Weston, Connecticut, traded in advance of two negative news announcements by Regado Biosciences, which was pursuing a drug called REG-1 to regulate clotting in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty. Kosinski, who served as principal investigator of the drug trial, got advance notice that patient enrollment in the trial was being suspended because patients had experienced severe allergic reactions. He allegedly sold all 40,000 shares of his Regado stock the…
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