U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 23179 / January 22, 2015

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Bonan Huang and Nan Huang, Case No. 15-CV-269

SEC Charges Two Employees of a Credit Card Company with Insider Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it charged Bonan Huang and Nan Huang (the "Defendants") with engaging in illegal insider trading on the basis of material, non-public information about the sales of predominantly consumer retail corporations.

In its complaint filed in the federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on January 21, 2015, the SEC alleges that the Defendants worked for a large credit card issuer as data analysts tasked with investigating fraudulent credit card activity. While employed there, Defendants searched their employer's nonpublic database that recorded the credit card activity for millions of customers at numerous, predominantly consumer retail corporations. The Defendants conducted hundreds, if not thousands, of keyword searches of this database. These searches, which were not done in furtherance of their employment duties, allowed the Defendants to view and analyze aggregated sales data for the companies they searched. The complaint further alleges that, in a breach of their duty to their employer, the Defendants made profitable securities transactions on the basis of this material, non-public information in advance of the public release of quarterly sales announcements by these companies.

The complaint alleges that, based on this conduct, the Defendants violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The SEC is seeking a final judgment that: (i) permanently enjoins the Defendants from engaging in future violations of the above-cited provisions; (ii) orders the Defendants to disgorge their ill-gotten gains, with interest; and (iii) orders them to pay financial penalties.

The SEC's expedited investigation is being conducted by G. Jeffrey Boujoukos, David L. Axelrod, Christopher J. Kelly, Michael B. Novakovic, Patricia A. Kuzma Trujillo, Daniel L. Koster, and other members of the SEC's Philadelphia Regional Office.