September 29, 2017

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Shane P. Fleming, a former executive at Life Time Fitness Inc., a middleman tipper, and six traders with insider trading ahead of the announcement that the company would be purchased and taken private. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, the SEC alleges that Fleming, a former vice president of sales at Life Time Fitness, learned of the merger discussions on or before Feb. 23, 2015 and tipped his friend and business partner Bret J. Beshey with the understanding that Beshey would use the information to make a profit and split those profits with Fleming.  The SEC alleges that rather than trade in his own name, Beshey tipped his friends Christopher M. Bonvissuto and Peter A. Kourtis with the understanding that both men would kick back a portion of their trading proceeds to Beshey.  According to the SEC’s complaint, Kourtis tipped his friends Alexander T. Carlucci, Dimitri A. Kandalepas, Austin C. Mansur, and Eric L. Weller, and asked Carlucci, Mansur, and Weller to give him a portion of any profits they made from trading on the information, which they agreed to do. SEC

Tagged in: Insider Trading, Securities Fraud,