December 5, 2016

The SEC announced insider trading charges against San Francisco-based information technology specialist Jonathan Ly.  Ly, a technology specialists with online travel company Expedia, allegedly hacked senior executives at his company and illegally traded on company secrets, generating nearly $350,000 in profits on trades undertaken between 2013 and 2016.  According to the SEC’s complaint, Ly exploited administrative access privileges to remotely hack into computers and email accounts of senior executives and review confidential documents and pre-earnings reports.  Ly targeted information prepared by Expedia’s head of investor relations which summarized Expedia’s yet-to-be-announced earnings reports and described how the market could react to particular announcements.  Ly allegedly used this nonpublic information to make highly profitable trades in Expedia securities in advance of the announcements.  Ly has agreed to pay more than $375,000 to settle the SEC’s charges.  SEC

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