Former SeaWorld Associate General Counsel Charged With Insider Trading
After a period of financial decline, SeaWorld was set to beat analysts' financial expectations. The SEC alleged former associate general counsel Paul Powers used that confidential information to turn a profit.
April 09, 2019 at 06:02 PM
3 minute read
SeaWorld in San Diego on Jan. 17, 2016. Photo: Shutterstock
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a former SeaWorld lawyer with fraud for alleged insider trading.
In a complaint filed in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday, the agency alleged that former SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Inc. associate general counsel Paul Powers used confidential information that the company was set to exceed analysts' financial performance expectations for its second quarter in 2018 to make approximately $65,000 in alleged “illicit profits.” The U.S. Department of Justice announced parallel criminal charges against Powers on Tuesday.
According to the SEC, Powers received a draft of SeaWorld's earnings release Aug. 1, 2018. The following day, he allegedly purchased 18,000 shares of company stock. When SeaWorld publicly released its earnings in an 8-K filing Aug. 6, the company's stock rose 17 percent—and Powers sold all his shares.
“As alleged in our complaint, Powers blatantly exploited his access to nonpublic information by misusing SeaWorld's confidential revenue data to enrich himself,” said Kurt Gottschall, the director of the SEC's Denver Regional Office, in a press release Tuesday. “Investors should feel confident in the integrity of corporate officers, particularly attorneys. The SEC is committed to swiftly pursuing insiders who breach their duties to investors.”
The SEC and Powers declined to comment further on the charges. SeaWorld did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The Orlando-based marine animal amusement park terminated Powers in October over the alleged insider trading, according to the SEC's complaint. Powers violated not only the law but SeaWorld policy, the SEC's complaint claims, by trading outside of a window period, not receiving approval from SeaWorld's general counsel prior to selling his shares and using confidential information to inform trades.
“At the time of his trading, defendant knew his trading was in breach of SeaWorld's trading policy, knew his trading was in breach of duty of trust and confidence that he owed to SeaWorld and its shareholders, and knowingly and willfully breached the trading policy and his duty by trading in securities issued by SeaWorld while in possession of material and confidential information,” the SEC alleged in its complaint.
Powers joined SeaWorld's legal department in October 2010. At the time of his termination, his LinkedIn profile states he was corporate counsel, assistant secretary and a member of the company's business ethics committee, whose practice areas included “corporate finance, real estate, environmental, bankruptcy, and contracts.”
He previously held in-house roles at GenAudio Inc. and Anheuser-Busch Companies.
In the years leading up to Powers' alleged insider trading, from 2013 to 2017, the SEC claims SeaWorld experienced financial decline, with fewer park attendees and a 60 percent drop in company share value, from $33 to $13 per share. Powers sold his shares for $25.40.
Read More:
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