{"id":85187,"date":"2023-06-30T01:23:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/?p=85187"},"modified":"2023-06-30T01:17:08","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:17:08","slug":"sec-charges-police-chief-four-others-in-connection-with-insider-trading-before-pharmaceutical-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/06\/2023\/sec-charges-police-chief-four-others-in-connection-with-insider-trading-before-pharmaceutical-merger.html","title":{"rendered":"SEC Charges Police Chief, Four Others in Connection with Insider Trading Before Pharmaceutical Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed insider trading charges against five individuals, including a police chief in Dighton, Massachusetts, arising from trading before the announcement of a tender offer by Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc<\/strong>. to acquire Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc. in May 2020. Four of the defendants traded on nonpublic information obtained, directly or indirectly, from the fifth defendant, and realized more than $2.3 million<\/strong> in ill-gotten gains and tipped others who realized more than $1.7 million<\/strong> in trading profits.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the SEC\u2019s complaint, Joseph Dupont was a vice president and part of the acquisition team at Alexion when he knowingly or recklessly tipped confidential information about the acquisition to his close friend Shawn Cronin, the police chief. Cronin allegedly then provided the information to Jarett Mendoza, another close friend, and to family friend Stanley Kaplan, who provided advice to Cronin on trading strategies. In turn, Kaplan allegedly provided the information to his friend and colleague, Paul Feldman. The SEC\u2019s complaint alleges that Cronin, Mendoza, Kaplan, and Feldman purchased Portola stock and\/or out-of-the money call options prior to the announcement, on the basis of the material, nonpublic information they received. The complaint further alleges that Kaplan and Feldman passed the information on to other family members and friends, who profitably traded. On the day of the acquisition announcement, Portola\u2019s stock price increased more than 130 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the SEC\u2019s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the defendants\u2019 approximate ill-gotten gains were as follows: Cronin – $72,000; Mendoza – $39,000, Kaplan – $472,000; and Feldman – $1.73 million. The other traders who allegedly received nonpublic information from either Kaplan or Feldman saw profits of an additional $1.7 million. After realizing their profits, Kaplan texted Feldman in Russian, \u201cLet\u2019s hope our golden goose will continue laying golden eggs!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis case shows our continuing commitment to rooting out those who cheat the system by misusing material nonpublic information,\u201d said Thomas P. Smith, Jr., Associate Director of the SEC\u2019s New York Regional Office. \u201cThese traders made millions of dollars by exploiting information about an upcoming merger that was supposed to have been held in strict confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York also announced parallel criminal charges today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SEC\u2019s complaint charges all five defendants with violating the antifraud and tender offer provisions of the federal securities laws and seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. The complaint also seeks officer and director bars against each defendant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed insider trading charges against five individuals, including a police chief in Dighton, Massachusetts, arising from trading before the announcement of a tender offer by Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. to acquire Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,16048,16047],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedgeco-networks-press-releases","category-hedgeco-news","category-hedgecovest-news","category-insider-trading-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85188,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85187\/revisions\/85188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}