Publications

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission recently filed civil charges alleging insider trading violations by four consultants and two former employees of an “expert networking” firm.  The SEC alleges that certain of these defendants, in return for consulting fees, improperly provided hedge funds and other investors with material non-public information regarding several publicly held technology companies, including companies other than those that employed them.  The Department of Justice has also brought criminal cases against these and other individuals arising out of this type of alleged misconduct.  The defendants’ employers in these cases have not been charged, but, in light of these cases, companies should consider whether their internal policies and compliance programs appropriately address employees’ obligations with respect to non-public information that they obtain about other companies in the course of their work.  This issue is particularly relevant to the technology industry and other industries where commercial collaboration in product development or supply chain matters is common.