The US Securities and Exchange Commission settled insider trading allegations against two former employees of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

According to the commission’s complaint, a former PwC auditor and a former senior associate in PwC’s Transaction Services Group used their access to sensitive information about PwC’s clients to allow one of them to buy stock ahead of a series of corporate takeovers. Without admitting or denying the allegations, the pair agreed to a settlement including monetary penalties.

The SEC alleges that the senior associate learned about the potential acquisition plans of PwC clients through his position in the Transaction Services Group, where he handled financial due diligence for clients interested in mergers or acquisitions. On six separate occasions in 2006, he told his friend and co-worker about these confidential plans. The auditor then used the information to trade before the news was released to the investing public. The pair’s scheme continued until October 2006, when it was uncovered by PwC’s Office of General Counsel, which referred the matter to the commission and cooperated with the SEC staff’s investigation.

According to the commission’s complaint, the former auditor netted unlawful trading profits of more than $20,000 by buying stock ahead of public announcements disclosing the acquisitions and then selling his shares. It claims he also tipped two other acquaintances about two of the acquisitions, allowing them to make several thousand dollars in unlawful trading profits.

The former auditor has agreed to a permanent injunction from further violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. He will disgorge his trading profits and those of the two acquaintances he tipped, altogether totaling $23,879.22, and will pay a civil penalty of $23,879.22. The other man has consented to a permanent injunction and a civil penalty of $20,835.57, as well as an order denying him from practicing before the commission for at least three years.

“Today’s charges of insider trading by accounting firm employees are another example of the commission’s commitment to exposing insider trading by industry professionals who have access to confidential market information unavailable to the investing public,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.