SEC Cracks Down on Insider Trading and Fraudulent Advisors, Freezing Assets and Winning Emergency Orders.

The SEC has charged Sean Wygovsky, a former trader at a Canadian asset management firm, and Christopher Matthaei, a former partner at a U.S. broker-dealer, with insider trading for using nonpublic information to earn illicit profits of more than $3.4 million in at least seven merger announcements involving Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs). Wygovsky allegedly tipped off Matthaei about the upcoming mergers, who then traded on the information. The SEC seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against Matthaei and Wygovsky, and an officer and director bar against Matthaei.