ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING
File No. 3-21927

May 3, 2024- The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against John M. Moretz, the former Chairman of Neptune Wellness Solutions, Inc. (“Neptune”), a Canadian-based public company, for tipping inside information in advance of a 2019 acquisition announcement.

According to the SEC’s order, Moretz’s friend’s wife purchased Neptune’s stock based on material nonpublic information Moretz disclosed in advance of Neptune’s May 9, 2019 announcement that it had acquired SugarLeaf Labs, Inc. (“SugarLeaf”), a hemp extraction company located near Hickory, North Carolina.  The order finds that, on March 5, 2019, the same date as a Neptune board meeting authorizing a Letter of Intent to acquire SugarLeaf, the wife opened an individual brokerage account for the purpose of purchasing Neptune stock.  The order also states that, during the initial meeting with her broker, the wife stated that Neptune “owned” a hemp facility in Hickory, though Neptune had not yet acquired SugarLeaf and their negotiations were non-public at that time.  According to the SEC’s order, the wife also told her broker that Moretz had told her husband that Neptune’s stock was going to increase to $12 per share (from its then price of approximately $3.50 per share).  After opening her account, the order states, the wife began accumulating Neptune stock against her broker’s advice and continued purchasing the stock after the announcement, ultimately acquiring approximately $500,000 in shares over the next three months as the only holding in her new account.  As a result of her securities purchases in advance of the May 9, 2019 announcement, the order finds that the value of the wife’s Neptune stock increased by $78,618.

Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Moretz consented to an order that finds that Moretz violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.  Moretz agreed to a cease-and-desist order, to pay a penalty of $115,000, and to a bar from serving as an officer or director of a public company for a period of three years.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by John Westrick and supervised by Matthew McNamara and Justin Jeffries