“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
That question has proven to be unanswerable, so let me restate it Securities Docket-style with one that does have an answer:
Q: If the SEC announces what should be a high-profile insider trading case on a Friday night, and no one is around to hear it, does it make any impact?
A: NO!!!!!!!!!
Late Friday, June 4, the SEC oh-so quietly announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Zachary Bryant, a former account executive of the investor relations firm Lippert Heilshorn & Associates, for repeatedly misappropriating confidential information from firm clients and tipping his current employer and former colleague, who traded on that information and tipped others. The SEC alleges that the defendants collectively reaped more than $1.4 million in total profits through insider trading.
You would think that the SEC filing a case against an investor relations firm for misappropriating its clients’ information would be newsworthy but apparently the most effective way to bury a story is to announce it on a Friday night, as the SEC did. As of this morning, a Google News search of “zachary bryant” produces not one hit. Not one!
For the record, the SEC alleges that Bryant “routinely learned material information about Lippert’s clients before the information was released to the public” and tipped a friend in advance of five announcements made by Lippert’s clients. The SEC claims that the illegal trading profits totaled over $1.4 million.
