On September 24, 2025, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York granted the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission’s Motion for Default Judgment against Joseph El-Khouri, a U.K. securities trader, for his role in an alleged international insider trading scheme and ordered him to pay more than $7.7 million to the SEC. The final judgment also permanently enjoins El-Khouri from further violations of the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) and 14(e) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5 and 14e-3 thereunder. The monetary judgment includes more than $2.3 million in disgorgement, over $587,000 in prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty of more than $4.7 million.
According to the SEC, between at least January 2013 and at least August 2015, participants in the scheme, including El-Khouri, realized tens of millions of dollars in illicit profits from trading in securities of U.S.-based companies based on tips received from investment bankers Benjamin Taylor and Drina Windsor. Taylor and Windsor, El-Khouri’s co-defendants who formerly worked for unnamed investment banks in London, allegedly misappropriated material nonpublic information from their respective employers and shared “commercially sensitive information” with El-Khouri and others, who allegedly used the tips to engage in illegal securities transactions for a profit. According to the SEC, El-Khouri realized more than $2 million in profits from his improper trades and allegedly provided Taylor and Windsor with cash and other benefits in exchange for the insider tips.
The court granted the SEC’s default motion several months after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled in February 2025, that El-Khouri, a U.K.-Lebanese national living in the United Kingdom, could not be extradited to the United States to face parallel criminal insider trading charges related to the illegal trades, after finding that the alleged misconduct largely took place in the United Kingdom.
Final Judgment | Complaint | USAO SDNY Press Release – October 22, 2019