The SEC
charged a South Pasadena, Calif.-based wealth management company and a former
fund manager with insider trading on non-public information about technology
companies. The charges are the agency’s latest in its ongoing investigation
into expert networks and hedge fund trading.
The SEC alleges that Whittier Trust Company
and its fund manager participated in an insider trading scheme involving the
securities of Dell, Nvidia Corporation, and Wind River Systems. The fund
manager generated
profits and avoided losses for funds he managed at Whittier Trust by trading on
confidential information that he obtained from another Whittier Trust fund
manager who he supervised. The other manager was charged by the SEC in
January 2012 and is currently cooperating with the investigation.
Whittier Trust and the fund manager agreed to pay
nearly $1.7 million to settle the charges.
“Time and again, [the fund manager] received what he
knew was inside information from [the other manager] and traded on it to
generate illicit gains for the funds he managed,” said Sanjay Wadhwa, Senior
Associate Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “Now, he and Whittier
Trust join a long list of insider trading perpetrators who have been held
accountable by the SEC for their transgressions.”
The SEC has charged more than three dozen individuals
and firms in enforcement actions arising out of its expert networks
investigation, which has uncovered widespread insider trading at several hedge
funds and other investment advisory firms. The first series of charges
were brought in 2011.
The attorneys at Sallah Astarita & Cox include former SEC staff attorneys and vetran securities litigators. We have extensive experience in insider trading cases, including recently obtaining a dismissal of insider trading charges against a client. See SEC Loses Insider Trading Case for more information. For more information regarding the defense of insider trading cases and investigations, contact us by email or visit our website at www.sallahlaw.com. For more information on this case, visit SEC Charges Whittier Trust and Fund Manager in Insider Trading Investigation Into Expert Networks.
