SEC Fines Two Firms for Trading Ahead of Nexen Acquisition

The SEC announced that two Hong Kong-based asset management firms, whose accounts were frozen in a major insider trading case, have agreed to pay nearly $11 million to settle the charges against them. The SEC obtained an emergency asset freeze in July 2012 against unknown traders just days after the announcement that China-based CNOOC Ltd. had agreed to acquire Canadian energy company Nexen Inc., causing more than a 50-percent spike in the price of Nexen shares.The SEC filed the emergency action after discovering that traders using brokerage accounts in Hong Kong and Singapore stood to make more than $13 million in potentially illicit profits.

See:SEC Press Release.