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SEC Settles Lawsuit against Former Qualcomm Analyst
In the US, Qualcomm's former Director of Strategic Marketing Analysis Andres Leyva has agreed to pay a fine of around $70,000 to settle an SEC lawsuit which alleged he had traded in company stock while in possession of confidential corporate information.
The SEC filed the lawsuit last July - claiming that Leyva had made nearly $35,000 in illegal profits by trading on the basis of telecoms firm Qualcomm's new licensing agreement with Nokia.
At the time, the two firms were involved in a lawsuit to determine whether Nokia owed Qualcomm royalty revenues when the companies' licensing agreement expired in 2007.
A day before the trial, the SEC alleged that Leyva discovered that Nokia had to agree the case out of court, and increased its upfront payment of $500m to $2.5bn.
Approximately two hours later, he bought 80 Qualcomm call options at 39 cents each, which gave him the right to buy shares in the firm's stock at $50 each.
Leyva was fired in August for violating Qualcomm's insider trading policy.
He has now agreed - without admitting or denying the allegations - to pay $36,100, which represents the profits he made from the deal, and a further civil penalty of $34,700.
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