Traders Settle Case Tied to Hack of SEC’s Corporate Database

Fenwick securities enforcement chair Michael Dicke spoke with The Wall Street Journal about a case tied to the hack of the SEC’s corporate database in 2016.

Two men accused of trading on information allegedly hacked from an SEC database agreed to settle the claims brought by the regulatory agency and will pay fines lower than the amount of the illegal profits they allegedly earned.

“If the government had really strong evidence, especially of intent to commit fraud, they would do all they could to bring a criminal case against the traders,” Dicke, the former head of enforcement for the SEC’s San Francisco regional office, told The Wall Street Journal. “The fact they haven’t been indicted and the SEC is coming around to settlements suggests they didn’t find key evidence showing the traders knew they were using information stolen from the Edgar hack when they did their trading.”

The full article is available through The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).