SEC charges Deloitte US partner and wife with insider trading
Deloitte's Arnold McClellan and wife charged with insider trading. His wife's sister and brother-in-law in the UK charged by the FSA after they receeived tip-offs from the McClellans
A DELOITTE US tax partner and his wife have been charged by the US markets watchdog for leaking M&A details to family members overseas in a multi-million dollar insider trading scheme.
Arnold McClellan and his wife Annabel are alleged to have provided advance notice of at least seven confidential acquisitions planned by Deloitte clients to her sister and brother-in-law, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
After receiving the tips, the brother-in-law took positions on the US companies that were acquisition targets. The alleged insider trading reaped $3m.
The FSA has charged the two relatives, James and Miranda Sanders of London, with insider dealing, along with several colleagues with whom he worked.
“The McClellans might have thought that they could conceal their illegal scheme by having close relatives make illegal trades offshore. They were wrong,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC’s division of enforcement.
“In this day and age, whether it’s across oceans or across markets, the SEC and its domestic and foreign law enforcement partners are committed to identifying and prosecuting illegal insider trading.”
Among the confidential impending transactions allegedly revealed by McClellan: Kronos Inc., a Massachusetts-based data collection and payroll software company acquired by a private equity firm in 2007; aQuantive Inc., a Seattle-based digital advertising and marketing company acquired by Microsoft in 2007; and Getty Images Inc., a Seattle-based licenser of photographs and other visual content acquired by a private equity firm in 2008.
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