Insider Trading

SANTA ANA — After two trials and two hung juries, federal prosecutors have agreed to dismiss insider trading and perjury charges against an Orange County, Calif., CEO accused of tipping former MLB star Doug DeCinces to the 2009 acquisition of the CEO’s medical-device company by a larger company.

The decision results from a $1.5 million settlement between James V. Mazzo, the former CEO of Advanced Medical Optics, and the Securities and Exchange Commission over the insider trading allegations. The criminal side of the deal was hammered out Thursday evening in an unusual set of hearings that ricocheted between U.S. District Judges David O. Carter, on the SEC civil action, and Andrew Guilford, presiding over the criminal case. Carter refused to approve the civil settlement unless the criminal charges were resolved, according to press accounts.

In May 2017, a jury convicted DeCinces of earning about $1.3 million from insider trading in Advanced Medical stock, but it hung as to Mazzo’s involvement. In February this year, a different jury again deadlocked on whether Mazzo had tipped his friend. DeCinces, a former third baseman and power hitter for the Baltimore Orioles and California Angels, has yet to be sentenced.