SEC Charges Florida-Based Financial Adviser with Illegally Tipping Inside Information

The SEC filed a complaint against a securities industry professional, Kevin L. Dowd, who is an employee of a brokerage firm, claiming that Dowd violated the federal securities laws’ prohibition on insider trading in breach of a duty he owed to his employer, the brokerage firm. Specifically, the SEC alleges that Dowd tipped material nonpublic information regarding the November 21, 2011 public announcement that Gilead Sciences, Inc. would acquire Pharmasset, Inc. to a friend and former business associate who bought Pharmasset securities and who, in turn, tipped his friend and former business partner who also ended up buying Pharmasset securities.

View Order in full here (links externally to SEC website).See also: Press Release