On February 13, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that a final judgment was issued in its case against Massachusetts resident Charlie Jinan Chen, after a federal jury found, in 2020, that he engaged in insider trading for trades made ahead of five of quarterly earnings announcements by Vistaprint N.V., an e-commerce company. According to evidence presented at trial, Chen was close friends with a Vistaprint insider and her husband, one of whom shared material nonpublic information with Chen regarding Vistaprint’s financials. Chen allegedly used his retirement funds to purchase Vistaprint options on several occasions between April 2013 and July 2014, using a brokerage account in his own name and the name of his wife. According to the SEC, Chen generated nearly $900,000 in illicit profits from the scheme. The SEC was also able to demonstrate at trial that, when questioned by the FBI in 2016, Chen lied about his relationship with the Vistaprint insider. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found that Chen was liable on all counts for violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933.
According to the SEC, the final judgment, which was filed in the District of Massachusetts on January 30, 2025, permanently enjoins Chen from engaging in further securities violations and orders him to pay a civil penalty of $892,827.
SEC Litigation Release | Memorandum and Order | Final Judgment