WORD OF THE DAY® for Hedge Funds – 10b5-1 Plan
A federal jury in Los Angeles recently convicted the former CEO of Ontrak Inc. (a publicly traded company), Terren Peizer, for engaging in an insider trading scheme using Rule 10b5-1 trading plans. The insider trading...more
In April, we issued an alert discussing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and Department of Justice’s ("DOJ") expansion of insider trading to 10b5-1 plans. On June 21, 2024, a federal jury in California...more
As discussed in our March 3, 2023 post, the DOJ and SEC brought an insider trading case against the founder and former CEO and Executive Chairman of Ontrak, Inc. based upon the former executive failing the “clean hands”...more
The U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") won at trial in its first insider trading prosecution against an executive based exclusively on his sales of stock under 10b5-1 trading plans....more
On June 21, 2024, a Los Angeles federal jury convicted former Ontrak, Inc. CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors Terren S. Peizer of insider trading in a first-of-its-kind prosecution based exclusively on the use of Rule...more
Back in March 2023, the DOJ unsealed an indictment against Terren Peizer, formerly the executive chair of Ontrak, Inc., representing the first time, according to the press release, that the DOJ brought “criminal insider...more
On April 5, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") won a jury verdict in its first "shadow trading" insider trading action. Only a few weeks before this verdict, a court denied a motion to dismiss a...more
On November 20, 2023, the Northern District of California denied summary judgment for the defendant in SEC v. Panuwat, an enforcement action being brought under a novel theory of insider trading law that is being referred to...more
As discussed in our December 15, 2022 post, significant amendments to Rule 10b5-1 plan requirements took effect earlier this year. With the Justice Department announcing its first criminal prosecution challenging a Rule...more
The public and private focus on corporate governance continued apace in the first half of 2023. In recent months, there were notable developments in jurisprudence potentially impacting corporate diversity initiatives and in...more
On March 1, 2023, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) unsealed an indictment against the founder, CEO, and Chairman of a publicly traded health care company (the “Company”), alleging that he had illegally executed trades...more
Executive suites in public companies across America took notice in recent weeks when federal prosecutors filed the first ever case based exclusively on an executive’s sale of company shares pursuant to what is commonly...more
Over the last several weeks, federal regulators and prosecutors have sent a strong signal to company executives that they will be using every tool in their arsenal to combat insider trading. The government’s crackdown has...more
Critics have repeatedly alleged that executives routinely take advantage of the many loopholes that exist regarding Rule 10b5-1 trading plans to engage in improper conduct. These criticisms finally seem to have been heard by...more
The DOJ and SEC have made no secret of their interest in combatting potential insider trading by high-level executives misusing Rule 10b5-1 plans. Those plans provide a potential safe harbor for executives trading their...more
Key Points - On March 1, 2023, the SEC and DOJ filed insider trading charges against a public company executive alleging he traded pursuant to 10b5-1 trading plans he adopted while he was in possession of material...more
A few months after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized amendments to address perceived abuses of corporate insider trading plans (known as "10b5-1 trading plans"), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)...more
On March 1, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment against the CEO of a publicly traded healthcare company (the Executive) relating to charges of an insider trading scheme. The indictment represents...more
DOJ Promotes Compliance Through Compensation and Clawback Programs (3.2.2023): • The DOJ announced corporate criminal resolutions will now include a requirement that companies implement a compensation and bonus scheme...more
On March 1, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the insider-trading indictment of Terren Peizer, Chairman and former CEO of health-care provider Ontrak. DOJ called this indictment “groundbreaking,” in that it is...more
Summary - The recently unsealed indictment of health care company Ontrak for insider trading marks the first criminal prosecution alleging an executive’s fraudulent use of a 10b5-1 trading plan to facilitate unlawful...more
On Wednesday, March 1 the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its first-ever prosecution of an individual for insider trading based on an executive’s use of 10b5-1 trading plans. Terren Peizer, the executive chairman of...more
On March 1, 2023, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged a healthcare executive with insider trading based on material, non-public negative information known to the...more
On March 1, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) unsealed an indictment charging Terren S. Peizer, the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ontrak Inc., a publicly traded health care company, with engaging in...more
Government officials, especially those in SEC Enforcement, have been making noise about the potential for insider trading abuse of Rule 10b5-1 plans since at least 2007, when then-SEC Enforcement Chief Linda Thomsen expressed...more