The Securities and Exchange Commission has taken legal action by filing insider trading charges against Jordan Meadow, a registered representative employed by broker-dealer Spartan Capital Securities in New York, and Steven Teixeira, chief compliance officer at international payment processing company Lian Lian Pay (LL Pay).
These charges are a result of accusations that Teixeira obtained information from his girlfriend’s laptop during the Covid-19 pandemic while she worked remotely. Teixeira has already pleaded guilty to federal charges of sneaking access to her laptop to get advance knowledge of Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware, among other deals.
Teixeira’s girlfriend was an executive assistant at Morgan Stanley in New York, and had told him to check her work email while she was away during the workday, and to alert her if she received emails that required her attention.
Teixeira purportedly used this privileged information to purchase call options on the issuers in advance of the official deal announcements. He then shared the confidential details with acquaintances, including Meadow, prompting them to engage in similar trades.
The alleged scheme resulted in Teixeira reaping approximately $28,600 in illicit profits, while Meadow amassed over $730,000. To make matters worse, Meadow is accused of providing investment recommendations to his brokerage clients based on the inside information, leading to substantial profits for those clients and sizable commissions for himself.
Scott Thompson, associate regional director of the SEC’s Philadelphia regional office, commented, “Our complaint highlights the egregious breach of trust committed by Teixeira, who misused information from his girlfriend’s laptop for
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