Florida Man to Pay Thousands Over Insider Trading Charges Tied to Apple Takeover

Thu Jul 20 2017
Lucy Harlow (4127 articles)
Florida Man to Pay Thousands Over Insider Trading Charges Tied to Apple Takeover

A Florida man has agreed to pay $ 278,773 to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission insider trading charges stemming from Apple’s purchase of his employer, mobile security company AuthenTec.

The SEC said John Stimpson bought AuthenTec call options, a bet that the stock price would rise, after learning nonpublic information in early July 2012 about a merger, including a special AuthenTec board meeting and unusual activity in AuthenTec’s human resources department.

In an order dated Tuesday, the SEC said Stimpson sold his options within three months after Apple (aapl) announced a $ 356 million takeover on July 27, 2012, which caused AuthenTec’s share price to rise by roughly two-thirds.

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Stimpson, 49, of Melbourne Beach, had been a senior network administrator in the information technology department of AuthenTec, his employer since November 2006, the SEC said.

Without admitting wrongdoing, Stimpson agreed to give up $ 135,570 of trading profit plus $ 7,633 of interest, and pay a $ 135,570 civil fine.

Stimpson’s lawyer did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for comment.

Lucy Harlow

Lucy Harlow

Lucy Harlow is a senior Correspondent who has been reporting about Equities, Commodities, Currencies, Bonds etc across the globe for last 10 years. She reports from New York and tracks daily movement of various indices across the Globe