WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Aug. 16 that it has charged seven individuals with allegations of insider trading and the generation of millions in profits by trading on confidential information regarding mergers and acquisitions.
“We allege that this case involves repeated insider trading based on tips about dozens of confidential mergers and acquisitions stolen by an IT employee at a bank,” said Jina L. Choi, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “IT employees are often entrusted with broad access to incredibly valuable, nonpublic information and have a duty to safeguard that information.”
The defendants are Daniel Rivas, James Moodhe, Michael Siva, Roberto Rodriguez, Rodolfo Sablon, Johnathan Zoquier, and Jeffrey Rogiers.
“The tippers and traders in this case are alleged to have used various methods to try to cover their tracks, but their efforts failed,” said Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC Enforcement Division. “These charges reflect our continued use of sophisticated tools to detect and root out secretive and wide-reaching insider trading schemes.”
Handling the case for the SEC are attorneys Walker Newell, David Makol, John Rymas, Joseph G. Sansone, Erin E. Schneider, Steven Buchholz, Jennifer J. Lee and Susan F. LaMarca.