Today, the case brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against Nelson Obus of Wynnefield Capital Inc over insider trading allegations had started yesterday. Bloomberg said that the case was revived in 2012 by a federal appeals court after overturning US District Judge George Daniels decision in 2010. Daniels said in his initial decision on the insider-trading case that the SEC failed to produce facts that were sufficient enough to determine that former GE Capital underwriter Brad Strickland had passed confidential information to aid Obus in his trades.
In the renewed case also overseen by Daniels, SEC lawyer Paull Kisslinger said in his opening statement that Obus had confessed twice to getting a tip that SunSource Inc is off to be sold. One of the time was a May 2001 phoe call made to the chief executive officer of SunSource, of whom Obus tried to get confirmation from the CEO about the company sale based on his source at General Electric Capital Corp.
Kisslinger told jurors, "These three defendants had no excuse for their conduct. They all knew what they did was wrong."
Bloomberg said that SEC is also suing Strickland, Obus' alleged informant and a former Wynnefield analyst Peter Black. According to the regulator, Strickland had passed the information about the SunSource sale to Black, who was his friend. Black allegedly then passed the information to Obus.
The news agency said all of the accused has denied any wrongdoing. Lawyer Joel Cohen for Obus, called the SEC's claims as ridiculous, and emphasized this in his opening statement.
"Why would someone who wanted to secretly trade on a tip call up the CEO of the company and say, 'I've been tipped'?," Cohen said.
Strickland was also the subject of an internal investigation by GE Capital. The investigation cleared him from any breach of duty to GE for his information disclosure to Black, Bloomberg said.
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