July 18, 2019

SEC fines former Equifax executive for insider trading

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a final judgment against Jun Ying, a former Equifax Inc. information security officer charged on March 14, 2018 with insider trading.  According to the SEC’s complaint, Ying learned of the September 2017 breach of Equifax’ systems in the course of his employment, exercised his vested Equifax stock options and then sold the shares ahead of Equifax’ public announcement of the breach, thereby avoiding losses of more than $117,000.

The final judgment permanently enjoins Ying from violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and prohibits him from acting as an officer or director of any public company for a period of ten years.  The judgment also requires the payment of $125,636 in disgorgement and prejudgment interest ($117,117 of this amount has been offset by the criminal forfeiture paid by Ying in June 2019, when he was also sentenced to four months in prison).

SEC litigation release