SEC Charges Oscar Wu With Settled Insider Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on October 7, 2015 filed settled insider trading charges against Oscar Wu, a former portfolio manager at a New York-based investment adviser.

The SEC claims that, during the course of his employment as a portfolio manager, Wu learned material, nonpublic information about Nevada-based telecommunications company Unwired Planet, Inc., and then exploited that information to execute trades in a relative’s account and also tip a second relative who then traded based on the information.

According to the SEC’s complaint, in late 2012, Unwired Planet and Wu’s employer – an investment firm that was considering investing in Unwired Planet – entered into an agreement under which Unwired Planet would provide Wu’s employer with confidential information about the company.

Among the information Wu learned was that Unwired Planet was in the process of negotiating a revenue-sharing agreement with Sweden-based Telefonktiebolaget L M Ericsson relating to a portfolio of mobile telecommunications patents. The SEC alleges that Wu used that material, nonpublic information to both purchase Unwired Planet securities in a brokerage account owned by one of his relatives and to tip a second relative to purchase Unwired Planet securities. When Unwired Planet announced that it had reached an agreement with Ericsson to share profits from the patent portfolio, the company’s stock price shot up by approximately 40 percent, yielding thousands of dollars in profits in the accounts held by Wu’s relatives.

In settling with the SEC, Wu agreed to be subject to a permanent antifraud injunction, to pay disgorgement, prejudgment interest and penalties totaling $35,038, and to be barred from the securities industry with a right to reapply in five years. The settlement with Wu is subject to court approval by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

For further information about this securities law blog post, please contact Brenda Hamilton, Securities Attorney at 101 Plaza Real S, Suite 202 N, Boca Raton, Florida, (561) 416-8956, by email at [email protected] or visit  www.securitieslawyer101.com.   This securities law blog post is provided as a general informational service to clients and friends of Hamilton & Associates Law Group and should not be construed as, and does not constitute, legal and compliance advice on any specific matter, nor does this message create an attorney-client relationship. Please note that the prior results discussed herein do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Hamilton & Associates | Securities Lawyers
Brenda Hamilton, Securities Attorney
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