A former executive at an investor relations firm and a couple of his friends who traded on advance knowledge of pending corporate news, have resolved the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) enforcement action against them.
Last August, the SEC filed a complaint against the former managing director at a biotech consulting firm, Robert Alan Yedid. It alleged that, between 2019 and 2024, Yedid shared inside information about his firm’s clients — including the results of clinical trials, earnings releases and pending mergers and acquisitions — with a pair of friends, Andrew Kaufman and Mark Jacobs, who traded on that information and shared US$500,000 in illicit profits with him.
In a parallel criminal case, they pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from their alleged insider trading. Now, the SEC has filed proposed final consent judgments against the trio too.
Those judgments, which remain subject to court approval, would require Yedid to disgorge US$167,820; Kaufman to disgorge US$391,580; and Jacobs to disgorge US$36,138.
Those amounts would be deemed satisfied by the monetary sanctions imposed in the criminal case — which included US$294,901 in fines and forfeiture ordered against Yedid; a total of US$584,802 ordered against Kaufman; and, US$56,138 against Jacobs.
Additionally, Yedid was also sentenced to 15 months in prison, Kaufman received 450 hours of community service and Jacobs was sentenced to 225 hours of community service. The court also previously imposed permanent injunctions against them.