Bloomberg Law: SEC Targets Lose Defense to Data-Based Insider Trading Probes

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned a Virginia federal district court decision in an insider trading case concerning mortgage broker Christopher Clark, who was accused of trading on illicit tips before Gartner Inc.’s acquisition of CEB Inc. The district court held that the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s case was too speculative, but the Fourth Circuit ruled that the case should have been decided by a jury. “This is almost a gift to the commission,” said O’Melveny & Myers LLP partner and former SEC attorney Jorge deNeve, adding that the “defense will have a harder job than they did the first time around.”

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