April 24, 2017

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against Kevin J. Amell, a Massachusetts-based portfolio manager accused of diverting at least $1.95 million to his personal brokerage account from a fund over which he had trading authority. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Amell carried out a fraudulent matched-trades scheme in which he prearranged the purchase or sale of call options between his own account and the brokerage accounts of the fund at prices that were disadvantageous to the fund and advantageous to him.  In one series of trades involving Amazon securities, for example, Amell allegedly generated a $23,000 profit for himself in less than 23 minutes at the fund’s expense. “As alleged in our complaint, Amell abused his trading authority at least 265 times by matching trades between the fund and his personal account at prices that he intentionally and fraudulently skewed to benefit himself,” said Joseph G. Sansone, Co-Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts today filed criminal charges against Amell. SEC

Tagged in: Market Manipulation and Trading Violations, Securities Fraud,