The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a proposed settlement, subject to court approval, for insider trading violations against seven fund managers and analysts along with two multi-billion dollar hedge fund advisory firms, Diamondback Capital Management LLC and Level Global Investors LP. According to the SEC, individuals with both firms received nonpublic, material information about Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corp. The cases charge illicit gains exceeding $62.3 million for the Dell trades and $15.7 million for the Nvidia trades.
The seven individuals named in the SEC complaint are Sandeep Goyal, Jesse Tortora, Todd Newman, Spyridon Adondakis, Anthony Chiasson, Jon Horvath and Danny Kuo. Goyal is charged with obtaining quarterly earnings information from an insider at Dell and telling Diamondback Analyst Tortora, who in turn tipped his portfolio manager Newman. Tortora also allegedly tipped three other people: Horvath, Kuo, and Adonakis, an analyst at Level Global who tipped his manager, Chiasson. In turn, Kuo allegedly obtained nonpublic, material information about Nvidia and tipped Tortora and Adondakis. SEC Enforcement Division Director Robert Khuzami said, “These are not low-level employees succumbing to temptation by seizing a chance opportunity. These are sophisticated players who built a corrupt network to systematically and methodically obtain and exploit illegal inside information again and again at the expense of law-abiding investors and the integrity of the markets.”
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