WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint Friday in California federal court against baseball Hall of Famer Eddie Murray and others for alleged insider trading.
The former Oriole great, his former teammate, Doug DeCinces and the former top executive at a California-based medical eye products company are all allegedly involved in illegal trading.
The SEC brought initial charges in the case last year, accusing DeCinces and three others of insider trading on confidential information ahead of an acquisition of Advanced Medical Optics Inc. by Abbot Laboratories. DeCinces and the others allegedly made more than $1.7 million in illegal profits. They settled that case by paying more than $3.3 million.
Now, according to the communique, the SEC is charging the alleged source of those illegal tips - DeCinces's close friend and neighbor James V. Mazzo, who was the Chairman and CEO of Advanced Medical Optics. But it is also charging two others who allegedly traded on inside information that DeCinces tipped to them - Murray and another friend David L. Parker, who is a businessman living in Utah.
The SEC alleges that Murray made approximately $235,314 in illegal profits after Mazzo, Parker, Murray and others agreed to acquire the outstanding shares of Advanced in advance of the Jan. 12, 2009, public announcement that Abbott would make the purchase. Murray allegedly bought 17,000 shares of stock and sold it all following the public announcement.
"It is truly disappointing when role models, particularly those who have achieved so much in their professional careers, give in to the temptation of easy money," said Daniel Hawke, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's Market Abuse Unit and Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office.
Murray, 56, currently resides around Santa Clarita, Calif. He was a Major League Baseball player from 1977-1997 and was inducted into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame in 2003.