Insider Trading Suspects Settle Up

In an untimely reminder of the greed that helped knock Wall Street off its moorings, seven defendants -- including former employees of Morgan Stanley and the now defunct Bear Stearns -- agreed to settle insider trading cases, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced.

In what the S.E.C. called the "Wall Street Serial Insider Trading Ring," 14 defendants, in two different schemes, traded repeatedly on non-public information in exchange for cash kickbacks, according to the complaint. Overall, they allegedly made at least $15 million in illegal profits.

The schemes, securities investigators said, had been ongoing since at least 2001 and continued through 2006, and involved thousands of illegal trades and millions of dollars in illicit gains by using inside information from a UBS Securities executive to trade ahead of the bank's recommendations on stocks.

In March 2007, Mitchel S. Guttenberg, an executive director in the UBS equity research department, was accused of illegally tipping others to upcoming analyst stock upgrades or downgrades.

The commission says he gave the information to two Wall Street traders, Erik R. Franklin and David M. Tavdy, in exchange for sharing in the profits they made from trading on that information.

The two traders, in turn, tipped others who traded on the information, including all whose settlements were just approved by a federal judge in New York. The defendants all settled without admitting or denying the allegations, according to the S.E.C.

The seven who settled for various sanctions included Robert D. Babcock, formerly a registered representative with Bear Stearns, who was ordered to forfeit $149,041; Mark E. Lenowitz, formerly a portfolio manager with Chelsey Capital, who is to forfeit $337,576; and David A. Glass, formerly a registered representative at Assent LLC and owner of Jasper Capital, who is to pay more than $2.7 million. Jasper Capital, a day trading firm, was also named as a defendant that settled.

In addition, Randi Collotta, formerly a lawyer in the compliance department at Morgan Stanley, settled charges that during 2005 and 2006 she and her husband disclosed nonpublic information about upcoming acquisitions involving Morgan Stanley's investment banking clients.

In return, the recipient of the information -- Marc R. Jurman, a registered representative for two broker-deals in Florida -- kicked back a share of his illegal trading profits. Jurman also tipped several others, including Babcock.

Randi Collotta was told to forfeit $670,014 -- which was the total of what all the tippees made -- but her payment was waived based on what the S.E.C. said was her "demonstrated inability to pay."

Her husband, Christopher K. Collotta, formerly a lawyer in private practice, was ordered to pay $4,500, and Jurman to pay $38,685.

The six individuals each earlier pled guilty in parallel criminal cases to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. They were part of a total of 13 people who pled guilty to criminal charges, but not all, including Guttenberg, have settled the civil charges against them.

by Elizabeth Olson