The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a Court-approved settlement requiring a Michigan-based former accountant at Domino’s Pizza Inc. to pay nearly $2 million for insider trading the company stock. The SEC’s Complaint https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2022/34-94769.pdf said that Bernard L. Compton used confidential financial data that he obtained through his role as an accountant at the corporate office of Domino’s to trade ahead of 12 of the company’s earnings announcements. The agency also said he spread these trades across seven different brokerage accounts belonging to himself and members of his family which lead to illicit profits of $960,000. Insider trading is trading in a public company’s stock by someone who has non-public private information about that stock for any reason. Insider trading can be either illegal or legal depending on when the insider makes the trade. Insider trading is illegal when the material information is still non-public, and this sort of insider trading comes with harsh consequences. Insider trading is considered one of the most common practices in which private information is used to make illicit profits. Despite sophisticated algorithm programs used by the SEC to spot these illegal trades only a small percentage are revealed and prosecuted. If you are aware of a person or company trading on the private information you may be able to submit a whistleblower case through the SEC whistleblower program. Whistleblowers filing such claims may have an entitlement to a significant percentage of what the Government fines the wrongdoers.
JEFFREY NEWMAN, A FORMER PROSECUTOR IS A WHISTLEBLOWER LAWYER WITH THE FIRM Jeff Newman Law, WHICH HANDLES WHISTLEBLOWER CASES NATIONWIDE. HE CAN BE REACHED AT 617-823-3217 OR AT jeff@jeffnewmanlaw.com
