An investment firm long based in Westport and its founder and chairman, Arthur J. Samberg, have agreed to pay a total of $28 million to settle regulators’ charges of insider trading in shares of Microsoft Corp., the Securities and Exchange Commission said today.
Arthur J. Samberg: settlement costs $28 million. File photo
In announcing the settlement with Samberg and Pequot Capital Management Inc., which had been based at Westport’s Nyala Farm office complex before announcing a move to Wilton last year, the SEC said neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.
Pequot Capital Management Inc. announced in May 2009 that Samberg was closing it down amid an ongoing investigation into possible insider trading, (See WestportNow May 27, 2009)
The SEC alleged that the hedge fund traded Microsoft shares on confidential information provided by a former employee of the technology giant whom it later hired.
Pequot Capital and Samberg together are paying $10 million in civil fines and $18 million in restitution of trading profits plus interest.
In addition, Samberg is barred under the settlement from working for any investment adviser firm.
Samberg has been Pequot’s chairman and CEO since founding the firm in 1998.
