An Ontario woman has been banned from trading for two years, and agreed to disgorge her share of insider trading profits, in a settlement with regulators.
Ontario’s Capital Markets Tribunal approved a proposed settlement between staff of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and Jessica Tam, who admitted to breaching securities rules by participating in a scheme to trade on advance knowledge of Score Media & Gaming Inc.’s planned acquisition by Penn National Gaming Inc. in 2021.
According to the OSC’s allegations, Tam became ensnared in the scheme after her friend’s husband, Huy Le (Alvin) Huynh, who was vice-president of finance at Score Media, learned about his company’s proposed acquisition by Penn Gaming.
The regulator alleged that Huynh and Tam — who was unemployed at the time — crafted a scheme that involved trading on his inside information about the pending acquisition using her TFSA. Huynh allegedly funded the trading and took 80% of the illicit profits, which totalled $390,000.
According to the settlement, Tam cooperated with the regulator’s investigation, admitted her misconduct and implicated others, which entitled her to “significant credit” for cooperation.
Under the settlement, she accepted a two-year ban and agreed to disgorge $120,000.
In a separate settlement, Huynh previously agreed to disgorge his share of the illicit profits ($270,000). He also paid a penalty of $325,000 and costs of $40,000, and agreed to a seven-year ban. His wife was banned for three years and agreed to pay $10,000 in costs.