‘Ha Ha! Sneaky, Sneaky!’

WASHINGTON (CN) - Two Wall Street traders cost their firms nearly $200,000 by illegally parking stocks, the SEC claims in two settled enforcement actions.

Stock parking, in this case, involves moving losing trades to someone else's account, so the losses will not affect the trader's year-end bonus.

Thomas Gonnella and Ryan King agreed to the stock-parking deal while they worked at different firms, the SEC said. Both have been fired.

Gonnella's round trip trades cost his firm $174,000, the SEC said in a statement announcing the settled complaint. He agreed to repay it and to be barred from the securities industry.

King cost his company $22,606, which he will repay with $1,500 in interest. He will be barred from the industry for 3 years.

In an example of rather boneheaded behavior, the SEC says, the men discussed their stock parking on text messages, in one of which King wrote, "haha, ok ... sneaky, sneaky."

Both men are from New York City.

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