The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against George Demos, a former Vice President of Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance at Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc., for trading on material, non-public information in advance of Acadia’s announcement of negative FDA news regarding its supplemental new drug application.  Acadia had secured prior approval of its drug to...Read More

In its perpetual quest to investigate and prosecute illegal insider trading, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought insider trading charges and obtained a final judgment against Barry Siegel, a former Foot Locker employee. The SEC’s insider trading charges, per the SEC’s federal district court complaint, were predicated upon alleged violations of the...Read More

In a rare setback on an appeal, the U.S. Securities and Exchange lost its bid for a significant civil penalty. The underlying SEC insider trading case was tried several years ago and the defendant, Charlie Chen, then appealed.   The SEC’s complaint alleged that Chen, who was close friends with a Vistaprint insider obtained highly material,...Read More

The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently filed charges against Anthony Marsico, Arthur P. Pizzello. Jr., Robert Quattrocchi, and Timothy Carey for insider trading in the stock of Goodness Growth Holdings, Inc., a cannabis company now doing business as Vireo Growth. The SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District...Read More

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) secured a final consent judgment against Andre Wong, a former employee of Lumentum Holdings, Inc., for engaging in illegal insider trading.  While the facts of the underlying insider trading are not unique, the severity of the civil penalty imposed was, no doubt intended to send a strong message...Read More

The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently sued Gabriel Rebeiz, a university professor of  electrical engineering and a private technical consultant, with insider trading. The SEC complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, and alleges Rebeiz violated a key anti-fraud provision of the federal securities...Read More

The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed civil charges against David Cooper, a securities brokerage firm registered representative, John Lowe Jr., Randy Grewal, and Richard Ringel, three securities traders, and their companies, for engaging in a long-running illegal inside trading scheme.  The illegal insider trading scheme, as alleged by the SEC, involved a...Read More

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained a final judgment in an enforcement case it filed over eighteen months ago against Amit Dagar, a former Pfizer Inc. employee, and his close friend and business partner, Atul Bhiwapurkar, for engaging in alleged illegal insider by capitalizing on material, non-public information concerning Pfizer’s Covid-19 treatment. The Final...Read More

While it is true that brokerage firms usually prevail in enforcing promissory note and employee forgivable loan claims in FINRA arbitrations, that is not always the case.  In my years of defending financial advisors in these matters, I have found that with certain facts and key evidence, the advisor has an opportunity to vigorously oppose...Read More

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently secured final court judgments against five individuals who were alleged to have worked in concert to engage in illegal insider trading by capitalizing on material, nonpublic information.  Four traded on the inside information given by the fifth and then passed it on to friends and family....Read More