Two GlobeNewswire employees were arrested and charged with pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars of information in company news releases that they had access to prior to publication.
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The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) announced on Friday that John Natividad and Harpreet Saini, two men residing in Brampton, a Toronto suburb, have been charged with fraud and insider trading.
The two computer scientists, who worked as system developers, had access to company press releases before they were officially published.
The two men are accused of using this inside information to obtain a total of $674,154 (approx. CAD$925,000) in profits for Harpreet Saini and $280,484 (approx.
Publicly traded companies typically wait until the end of the trading day to release important information, such as financial results or acquisitions, that could affect their stock price.
By having this information at hand in advance, the two men were able to execute transactions by anticipating stock market movements.
“Employees who have access to confidential company information have a duty to keep that information secure and not to use it for personal gain.
Illegal transactions undermine investor confidence,” said Jeff Kehoe, director of enforcement at OSC.
The two men, who are accused of rampaging from May 2018 to July 2021, have been arrested, according to information from the US judiciary, which on Friday also launched a civil lawsuit against the two men for insider trading on US soil.
John Natividad and Harpreet Saini are expected back in court in Canada on November 21.