SEC Settles Lawsuit against Former Qualcomm Analyst

In the US, Qualcomm's former Director of Strategic Marketing Analysis Andres Leyva has agreed to pay a fine of around $70,000 to settle an SEC lawsuit which alleged he had traded in company stock while in possession of confidential corporate information.

The SEC filed the lawsuit last July - claiming that Leyva had made nearly $35,000 in illegal profits by trading on the basis of telecoms firm Qualcomm's new licensing agreement with Nokia.

At the time, the two firms were involved in a lawsuit to determine whether Nokia owed Qualcomm royalty revenues when the companies' licensing agreement expired in 2007.

A day before the trial, the SEC alleged that Leyva discovered that Nokia had to agree the case out of court, and increased its upfront payment of $500m to $2.5bn.

Approximately two hours later, he bought 80 Qualcomm call options at 39 cents each, which gave him the right to buy shares in the firm's stock at $50 each.

Leyva was fired in August for violating Qualcomm's insider trading policy.

He has now agreed - without admitting or denying the allegations - to pay $36,100, which represents the profits he made from the deal, and a further civil penalty of $34,700.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.