SEC Continues To Take A Tough Stance On Market Abuse Violations

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") recently reaffirmed its determination to hold those involved in market abuse violations accountable. To illustrate, the following three charges are discussed.

On 10 February 2012, the SEC announced that it was charging yet another person in the Galleon insider trading case involving Raj Rajaratnam. Numerous defendants have been charged in the Galleon insider trading case to date. This time it concerned a managing member of hedge fund investment adviser Whitman Capital LLP and his firm for violating insider trading prohibitions. Allegedly, Whitman traded in the listed securities based on non-public information which he received from a former employee of the Galleon Group hedge fund.

A second insider trading case involves unlawful trading by a former vice-president of Coca Cola. On 8 March 2012, the SEC filed a charge in which it claimed that the former VP allegedly used non-public information about an imminent acquisition by the company to purchase securities of Coco Cola Enterprises on the day before the acquisition. According to the SEC the former VP misappropriated the material non-public information...