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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Swiss Trader to Pay|$2.8M in Securities Case

(CN) - A Swedish stock trader agreed to pay $2.8 million to settle claims he bought shares of a Florida-based biometrics company based on an insider tip that the firm was about to be bought by Apple.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claimed Helmut Anscheringer bought stock and call options in AuthenTec after learning from a friend that the Melbourne, Fla.-based company was being acquired by the technology giant.

AuthenTec provides technology such as fingerprint sensors that allow mobile devices to identify their users without entering a password.

The call options accounted for nearly all of the series volume on the days he purchased them, the SEC said.

Just days later, AuthenTec publicly announced that it had agreed to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple for $355 million in cash. The positive news led to the stock price to close 60 percent higher than the previous day. As a result, the government said, Anscheringer pocketed $1.8 million as a result of his insider information.

"Foreign traders in U.S. stocks are not exempt from SEC scrutiny," said said Glenn Gordon, Associate Director of the SEC's Miami Regional Office. "We traced the misconduct back to Anscheringer when investigating these significant purchases in a trading account belonging to an entity in the British Virgin Islands for which he was listed as the beneficiary."

The SEC claims Anscheringer, who lives in Basel, Switzerland, violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 when he took the tip and made the trades.

Without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, Anscheringer agreed to pay disgorgement of $1,820,024, prejudgment interest of $121,732, and a penalty of $910,012 for a total of $2,851,768.

Under the terms of the agreement, he must also cease and desist from committing or causing any violations and any future violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.

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