WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Dec. 5 that it has filed insider trading charges against Jonathan Ly, an Expedia employee, for allegations of hacking senior executives in order to trade on company secrets.
Ly purportedly worked in Expedia’s corporate IT services department and, between 2013 and 2016, illegally traded in advance of nine company news announcements; Ly gained $350,000 in profits from the trades. The SEC claims that Ly used his position to hack into the emails of senior executives at the company. These actions allegedly allowed Ly to access to nonpublic information and use the information to make profitable trades in Expedia securities.
“Ly allegedly exploited his role as an IT professional by stealing passwords and posing as other users in order to access Expedia’s confidential information,” said Jina L. Choi, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “Ly’s alleged insider trading scheme continued even after he left Expedia when he secretly kept a company laptop and connected remotely to Expedia’s network to steal confidential information.”
Ly agreed to disgorge $348,515.72 plus interest of $27,391.30. The settlement is subject to court approval.