Bharat Kotecha and Arnon Isaacson

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION V. BHARAT KOTECHA and ARNON ISAACSON, Civil Action No. 1: 98-CV-1576-JCT (N.D.Ga.)

On April 19, 1999, the Honorable Jack T. Camp, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, entered an order granting relief against Bharat Kotecha in the Commission's case against Kotecha and Arnon Isaacson, both former employees of The Home Depot, Inc., an Atlanta-based chain of home improvement and building supply stores. The Commission's complaint, filed on June 3, 1998, alleged that during April and May of 1995, Kotecha learned that Home Depot's financial performance during the first quarter of its 1995 fiscal year would be disappointing. Allegedly using this information received in the course of his employment, Kotecha opened and closed positions in call and put options on Home Depot's stock shortly before the company's public announcement about its disappointing first quarter earnings on May 16, 1995.

The order permanently enjoins Kotecha from further violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and directs him to pay $38,812.50 in disgorgement, $13,760.38 in prejudgment interest and a civil penalty of $19,406.25. Kotecha consented to the entry of the order without admitting or denying the allegations in the Commission's complaint.