Microsoft pair charged in insider trading scandal
US-based duo pocketed $400,000 between them by trading shares ahead of income statements and acquisitions
A Microsoft manager and his friend have been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for pocketing nearly $400,000 from an insider trading scam.
Brian Jorgenson - a senior manager at the vendor's Treasury Group - and his friend Sean Stokke, a business analyst who worked as a contract systems analyst for Microsoft - took part in the dodgy trades between April last year and this October.
The pair is alleged to have made $393,125 (£240,414) between them by trading shares after receiving confidential Microsoft information relating to acquisitions and financial results statements, according to an SEC filing.
In the first instance, in April last year, the duo traded in advance of the news of Microsoft investing $300m in Barnes and Noble - an e-reader and digital media business. Jorgenson and Stokke made $185,000 in profits on this occasion.
The next instance occurred in in July this year ahead of Microsoft's fourth quarter earnings announcement in which it fell short of analyst expecations. Jorgenson was aware the firm was not going to wow Wall Street and made more than $195,000 in trading shares before the news broke.
A similar instance occurred in October this year ahead of its Q1 results when they made $13,000 because they knew the company would exceed expectations.
The SEC claimed the two were fully aware of their actions and even went as far as to buy disposable mobile phones so their calls were more difficult to trace.
The pair was planning to use the profits to start up a hedge fund, but Daniel Hawke, chief of the SEC's enforcement division's market abuse unit said this was not the right way to go about their plans.
"Abusing access to Microsoft's confidential information and generating unlawful trading profits is not a wise or legal business model for starting a hedge fund," he said.
"We thwarted the misguided plans of Jorgenson and Stokke as they sought to illegally profit at others' expense."