The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is charging former Flextronics senior business director Walter Shimoon, along with five of his colleagues, with feeding insider information to stock market investors. The men were all involved with Primary Global Research, which was a company that handled the information handoffs, including data about Apple and Research in Motion.
Flextronics is a parts supplier to Apple, and as such Mr. Shimoon had access to information about Apple’s component orders.
Insider trading ring bust proves crime doesn’t pay
Along with Mr. Shimoon, former AMD supply-chain manager Mark Anthony Longoria, former Dell global supply manager Daniel DeVore, Primary Global Research employees Bob Nguyen and James Fleishman, and private industry consultant Winifred Jiau were all charged civilly by the SEC, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Shimoon was arrested in October 2009 following a Federal investigation into Wall Street insider trading violations. He was accused of selling hedge fund information about the number of iPhones Apple had sold two weeks before it was publicly available, and for leaking information about the iPhone 4 well ahead of when it was announced.
“Company executives and other insiders moonlighting as consultants to hedge funds cannot blatantly peddle their company’s confidential information for personal gain,” commented SEC Division of Enforcement director Robert Khuzami.
The men have also been charged criminally for their actions.