SEC Charges Former SeaWorld Associate General Counsel With Insider Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former senior lawyer at SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. with insider trading based on nonpublic information that the company’s revenue would be better than anticipated for the second quarter of 2018.

The SEC alleges that Paul B. Powers had early access to key revenue information as the company’s associate general counsel and assistant secretary, and he purchased 18,000 shares of SeaWorld stock the day after he received a confidential draft of the 2018 second quarter earnings release that detailed a strong financial performance by the company after a lengthy period of decline.

In a parallel action, the U.S. Department of Justice today announced criminal charges against Powers arising out of the same conduct. read more »

Doctor who was paid by Purdue to push opioids to testify against drugmake

Dr Russell Portenoy agreed to cooperate with lawyers in return for dropping legal actions against him

A doctor who led the charge for mass prescribing of opioids in the US, and was then paid by Purdue Pharma to help drive sales of OxyContin, is to testify against the drugmaker and other companies facing a raft of lawsuits over America’s opioid epidemic. read more »

Spoofing programmer case ends in mistrial

The case against a Naperville computer programmer who allegedly helped a London trader manipulate financial markets ended in a mistrial today. read more »