On September 14, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a settled enforcement action against Jon P. Kipp, a 62-year-old resident of Kirkland, Washington, charging him with insider trading in the common stock of pop-culture consumer products company Funko, Inc. According to the SEC, Kipp sold his entire position of roughly 247,000 Funko shares on the morning of July 13, 2023, just hours before the company publicly disclosed that its then-CEO would be stepping down — a move that sent the stock tumbling approximately 19 percent the following day. According to the SEC, the illicit trades enabled Kipp to avoid nearly $484,000 in losses.
Without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, Kipp agreed to the entry of a final judgment — pending court approval — that would permanently bar him from violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5. Under the proposed settlement, Kipp would pay a total of approximately $1.07 million in monetary remedies, consisting roughly of $484,000 in disgorgement, approximately $106,000 in prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty of approximately $484,000.
According to the SEC’s complaint that was filed in the Western District of Washington, Kipp had previously served as an informal advisor and later as Executive Vice President of Operations at Funko before retiring in 2018. The SEC also reported that Kipp and the unnamed CEO had maintained a decades-long friendship that stretched back to high school and college. The complaint alleges that on July 11, 2023, the CEO confided in Kipp via text message that Funko’s Board of Directors had placed him on a mandatory paid sabbatical and that he intended to leave the company. Two days later, Kipp allegedly reversed an earlier instruction he had given his investment adviser — which had been to sell only if the stock hit $12 — and instead, directed the adviser to liquidate all of his Funko shares at the market price that same day. The SEC accused Kipp of breaching a duty of trust and confidence owed to the CEO by misappropriating material nonpublic information shared in private communications. The SEC also indicated that Kipp did not disclose his trading activity to the CEO.
SEC Litigation Release | SEC Complaint