Today, the SEC announced charges against 13 defendants in four separate insider trading schemes:

• Garelick/Shvartsman/Shvartsman/Rocket One Capital LLC (for illegal insider trading in the securities of Digital World Acquisition Corporation);
• Dagar/Bhiwapurkar (for illegal insider trading in the securities of Pfizer Inc.);
• Dupont/Cronin/Mendoza/Kaplan/Feldman (for illegal insider trading in the securities of Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc.); and
• Meadow/Teixeira (for illegal insider trading in the securities of numerous issuers)

The SEC alleges that these defendants, which include corporate executives and insiders, a police chief, and a SPAC board member, made more than $40 million in ill-gotten gains, collectively, from their schemes.

Public trust is essential to the fair and efficient operation of our markets. But when public company insiders take advantage of their status for personal gain, as we allege here, the investing public loses confidence that the markets work fairly and for them. Today’s actions  reaffirm our commitment to leveraging all the tools at our disposal, including our data analytics initiatives, to investigate  these abusive trading practices, hold accountable bad actors and ensure the integrity of our markets.

I want to thank the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which announced parallel criminal charges in each of these matters. These matters demonstrate how our two agencies can work cooperatively to police the securities markets and protect investors.