US regulators have accused a man of making $1.8m (£1.4m) by trading on confidential information he overheard while his wife was on a remote call, in a case that could fuel arguments against working from home.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it charged Tyler Loudon with insider trading after he “took advantage of his remote working conditions” and profited from private information related to the oil firm BP’s plans to buy an Ohio-based travel centre and truck-stop business last year.
The SEC claims that Loudon, who is based in Houston, Texas, listened in on several remote calls held by his wife, a BP merger and acquisitions manager who had been working on the planned deal in a home office 20ft (6 metres) away.
The regulator said Loudon went on a buying spree, purchasing more than 46,000 shares in the takeover target, TravelCentres, without his wife’s knowledge, weeks before the deal was announced on 16 February 2023. TravelCentres of America’s stock soared by nearly 71% after the deal was announced. Loudon then sold off all of his shares, making a $1.8m profit.
deleted by creator
Headphones don’t protect what you say. My girlfriend is an investment banker and I could easily do the same thing. The funny thing is, she only makes low six figures while doing multiple hundred million deals.
The difference from WFH and WFO is that the employer can control the environment better; which keeps confidential materials more contained- though people will always talk out of class to get ahead, WFH removed all ability to keep secrets reliably.
Not saying WFH shouldn’t be a thing, but there are some reasons to still require an office. Sensitive materials feature prominently.
Though I’d suggest four walls and a locked door is a good place to start.
The real shocker here is that the SEC is actually addressing some – any – form of financial crime. And within a two-year window of the actual alleged misdeed, like they’re not all just waiting for everyone to forget it happened.
Wow. These people must be thoroughly and completely unconnected, without a single family member or close friend anywhere in government or law enforcement. They’d have enlisted SEC as advisors and told him how to get it done right.
They targeted a regular dude, not they companies raking in billions off of shit like this.
Yeah. It’s been many years since the SEC turned a fang to any person or entity with a high net worth.
In this case I read another comment somewhere which said his wife reported his trading to her employer, which honestly was either exceedingly naïve or exceedingly brave on her part, given how easily they could have just charged her directly regardless of the fact that she was the person reporting the crime.
Or maybe she was just so pissed off she didn’t even care, lol.
I think to avoid SEC complications, you have to have a high net worth BEFORE your scam, not just because of it. Since money can be seized without a presumption of innocence, they’d likely just seize the 2mill profit and say you have to prove its innocence to get it back.
You’d need to have a high enough net worth from the get-go in order to make it seem more expensive than it’s worth to investigate/litigate.
When you’re married to someone, your finances may as well be your spouse’s. Who would seriously buy that much in shares and not keep your own wife in the loop?
