NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - The US Securities and Exchange Commission late last month sued a former Invitrogen official for allegedly trading stock on insider knowledge in 2004, GenomeWeb Daily News has learned.
In its complaint, the SEC accuses Harry Yim of sparing himself $80,000 in losses and profiting to the tune of $410,000 by selling shares in Invitrogen soon after the company was informed in a July 7, 2004, meeting that it is in a “crisis” and that “fully 60 percent of Invitrogen’s business is shrinking.”
The complaint, which can be read here, states that after the 2004 meeting Yim sold 1,603 shares and exercised options to sell an additional 4,728 shares for proceeds of around $410,000. He made his trades two days before Invitrogen issued that year's second-quarter earnings report, which caused the stock to tumble 20 percent that day.
The SEC is suing Yim, who was a molecular geneticist and executive with Invitrogen until he was fired in 2006, in a US District Court for the Southern District of California for the amount of losses he avoided, plus interest, and for a civil penalty, the Commission said.
Invitrogen did not immediately return a call seeking comment.