The Wall Street Journal-20080116-Pricewaterhouse Pair Settle SEC Trading Charges
Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080116
Pricewaterhouse Pair Settle SEC Trading Charges
A former PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP auditor profited from trading on inside information that he obtained from a co-worker at the Big Four accounting firm's San Francisco office, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday.
Gregory Raben, 30 years old, and William Borchard, 28, settled the SEC's civil lawsuit, filed in federal district court in San Francisco, without admitting or denying the allegations.
The SEC said Mr. Raben, of Louisville, Ky., will turn over nearly $24,000 of allegedly illegal trading profits and pay a fine of equal size. Mr. Borchard, of Chicago, will pay a fine of more than $20,000 and be barred from public-company accounting for at least three years.
According to the SEC's complaint, Mr. Raben made more than $20,000 in 2006 by trading in a half dozen public companies -- MatrixOne Inc., Lexar Media, M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers, Aleris International, Embarcadero Technologies and Harrah's Entertainment Inc.
The SEC said Mr. Raben, who was based in San Jose, Calif., was tipped off by Mr. Borchard, a friend who worked in the firm's transaction-services group, which helped PwC clients with mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Raben allegedly tipped two other friends about some of the deals, allowing them to make several thousand dollars of illegal profits.
The SEC said that Mr. Borchard had breached his duty to PwC clients by passing along the information and that Mr. Raben had violated the same duty of confidentiality by trading on the tips and passing them along.
Mr. Raben resigned from PwC last February,and Mr. Borchard left the firm last summer, according to the SEC's complaint. Attorneys for Messrs. Raben and Borchard couldn't be reached for comment.
