SEC charges former CEO of Heartland Payment with insider trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the former CEO of financial-technology company Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. with insider trading on Tuesday, saying in a complaint that he gave a romantic partner details about his company’s planned sale to a larger rival before they became public.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Connecticut, the SEC accused the former executive, Robert Carr, and his partner, Katherine Hanratty, of buying around $900,000 worth of Heartland stock in late 2015 based on confidential information that it was about to be acquired by payment processor Global Payments Inc. GPN, +0.55%  Carr allegedly provided Hanratty with the deal terms and the money to buy Heartland shares, which ultimately earned them a profit of $250,628 when they sold them after the deal closed, according to the SEC.

The SEC is asking both Carr and Hanratty to disgorge their profits and pay a civil monetary penalty. It is also seeking to prohibit Carr from serving as an officer or director of an SEC-reporting company going forward.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

Also popular on WSJ.com:

Why men are wearing watches that don’t tell time.

Billionaire’s secret buyout formula: 110 instructions and an intelligence test.

Source: Read Full Article