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Ex-husband’s ex B.P. mergers and acquisitions manager Two years in federal prison After wiretapping her work-related phones, she was charged with making a $1.76 million profit from insider trading. An oil giant buys another company
Her ex-husband, Tyler Loudon, was also sentenced to one year of post-sentence probation and fined $10,000. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake in Houston on monday.
Peter Seidenberg, Loudon’s attorney, asked Judge Lake to sentence Loudon to one year of home confinement, followed by two years of probation, citing the need to care for Loudon’s sick mother. I asked him to give me an order.
The prison sentence was at the low end of the 24-30 month sentence sought by federal prosecutors.
As part of his guilty plea to the charges, Loudon securities fraud Already in February, he agreed to give up illicit profits from the sale of about 46,500 shares of TravelCenters of America stock in February 2023 after the company’s shares soared more than 70% on reports that it would be acquired by BP for about $1.3 billion.
The 42-year-old Houston resident, who was an engineer for an oil and gas company, bought about $2 million in Travel Centers shares over several months starting in December 2022.
According to court records, the purchase began after he secretly overheard his wife’s work phone call about BP’s purchase of Travel Centers, and then discussed the deal with his wife in a “normal” couple-like conversation.
According to the records, Loudon’s wiretap took place at a time when he and his wife were working remotely “in close proximity” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to court documents, Loudon was “tormented by guilt and fear” after learning that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority had asked BP for a list of people “with knowledge” of the Travelcentres deal before it was finalized, and “confessed to his wife” what he had done in March 2023.
According to court records, Loudon’s wife was not accused of wrongdoing, but she reported his conduct to her superiors at BP, which ultimately led to her subsequent firing. She also divorced Loudon.
According to a sentencing memorandum filed last week by Loudon’s lawyers, at the time he bought Travel Centers, Loudon was “an active day trader in the stock market” and “had been experiencing significant stress in his marriage as a result of frequent job transfers and career changes” for both him and his wife.
“Mr. Loudon began to fear that his marriage was in jeopardy. Because of a divorce he had experienced as a child, the incident was particularly imprinted on his mind,” the memo said. has been written.
“In the wholly misguided belief that money could somehow alleviate the marital stress they were experiencing, Mr. Loudon made the fateful decision to betray his wife’s trust and his own better judgment,” the memo read.
“Tyler deeply regrets his actions, has taken responsibility for them, and looks forward to putting this behind him and moving on with his life,” Seidenberg told CNBC on Wednesday.
Seidenberg said in his sentencing memo that Loudon lost his job and marriage as a result of his actions and that “as a result of this conviction,… [he] He has little realistic hope for future employment in his engineering field, and his future job prospects are extremely bleak. ”
“Regardless of the sentence the court imposes, Mr. Loudon will pay the price for his extremely poor judgment for the rest of his life,” Seidenberg wrote.
“Insider trading is rampant, extremely difficult to detect, and negatively impacts the health of financial markets and the public perception of them,” Houston U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani said in a statement.
“These crimes undermine public confidence in the integrity of markets and foster skepticism that markets are rigged in favor of the lucky few,” Hamdani said. “Mr. Loudon was able to commit this crime because he had an unfair advantage: his spouse was an insider who provided him with material nonpublic information.”
Loudon’s lawyers argued in a sentencing memo that insider trading cases involving spouses where no one but the spouse knows about nonpublic information often don’t result in criminal charges.
“Indeed, civil, non-criminal actions are typically how these types of cases are handled,” the memo said, pointing to nine Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuits.
“Most, if not all, spousal-related insider trading cases that result in criminal prosecutions typically contain aggravating circumstances not described here,” Seidenberg wrote.
Loudon also faces a separate civil lawsuit brought by the SEC related to insider trading, which, like the criminal case, is being overseen by Lake.
On May 3, Judge Lake ordered the SEC’s lawyers and Mr. Seidenberg to either consent to a final judgment in the case or file a briefing schedule regarding the SEC’s request for monetary relief within 30 days.