Skip to main content
Menu Icon
Close

InfoBytes Blog

Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

SEC Settles with Post It-Eating Middleman in Law Firm Insider Trading Case

SEC Financial Crimes

Financial Crimes

On July 13, the SEC announced a settlement with Frank Tamayo, who acted as a middleman in a $5.6 million insider trading scheme.   According to the SEC, a law firm clerk used the firm’s internal databases to access confidential information concerning clients’ pending corporate transactions, and tipped Tamayo at coffee shops to the pending transactions.  Tamayo wrote ticker symbols of target companies on a Post-It note or napkin, met a stockbroker in Grand Central Terminal’s main concourse, flashed the Post-It or napkin to the stockbroker, and then immediately chewed up and swallowed it.  Tamayo also conveyed additional information about the pending deals, in total passing information on over a dozen companies.  The stockbroker then traded in the shares of the subject companies on behalf of the co-conspirators and other customers. The settlement involved no monetary penalties based on Tamayo’s extensive cooperation with the SEC.  A $1 million disgorgement as part of the settlement can be satisfied by forfeiture or restitution in a parallel criminal proceeding pending in the District of New Jersey, where Tamayo has already pleaded guilty.