A Ukrainian-based investment bank and its CEO agreed to pay $30 million to settle insider-trading claims from the SEC that the firm profited from non-public corporate information taken from hacked business newswire services.
Jaspen Capital Partners and CEO Andriy Supranonok were among 34 defendants named in a Aug. 11 federal lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Department, accused of accessing unreleased corporate news releases on earnings, mergers and acquisitions, and other information that was used to illegally trade before the news was made public. The scheme generated more than $100 million in illegal profits over five years, the SEC said in court documents.
The SEC said Jaspen Capital and Mr. Supranonok made about $25 million from information stolen from two newswire services between 2010 and 2014 and made additional profits trading on press releases stolen from a third newswire service in 2015, said a news release from the agency issued Monday.
Jaspen and Mr. Supranonok did not admit or deny the charges, the SEC said. The settlement must be accepted by U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J.
The SEC and Justice Department action against the remaining 32 defendants is not affected by the settlement.
