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 laws, namely Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. In resolving the SEC insider trading case, Rebeiz, on a neither admit nor deny basis, consented to entry of a final judgment.
Specifically, the SEC in its federal court enforcement action alleged that Rebeiz served on the Technical Advisory Committee of Resonant, a company in the radio frequency filters space. In that position, Rebeiz had access to Resonant’s proprietary information and, evidently impressed with its underlying business prospects, encouraged Resonant executives to sell the company. Ultimately, a Resonant executive told Rebeiz of an impending acquisition of Resonant by a subsidiary of another company. The SEC claims the next day, while in possession of this material, non-public information, Rebeiz bought 60,000 shares of Resonant stock, and purchased an additional 60,000 shares over the next few weeks prior to the public announcement of the acquisition. When the news broke, Resonant’s stock soared over 257% thereby generating $360,673 in illegal trading profits for Rebeiz, as per the SEC.
The final judgment prohibits Rebeiz from violating the charged anti-fraud provision of the federal securities laws in the future, as well as orders him to pay disgorgement of his illicit trading profits, prejudgment interest and a civil penalty of $360,673, the precise amount of his alleged illegal gains. As is typical in SEC insider trading settlements, the civil penalty is pegged to the amount of profits or losses avoided resulting from the securities fraud violation. The final judgment also prohibits Rebeiz from serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years. The judgment is subject to the court’s approval.
Securities fraud defense lawyer David Chase has successfully represented individuals in SEC insider trading investigations around the nation for more than two decades after having served as a Senior Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. If you are under SEC investigation for securities fraud, including insider trading or stock manipulation, and need guidance from an experienced SEC defense attorney, contact David at: 800-760-0912 or e-mail him at: david@davidchaselaw.com. Visit the Firm’s website for articles about how the SEC conducts its insider trading investigations, as well as the firm’s successes in beating insider trading investigations at: www.securitiesfrauddefense.net.
