© 2018 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(July 5) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that it has settled its insider trading case against former ClubCorp Holdings Vice President Nelson “Frank” Molina.
In documents filed Thursday in federal court in Dallas, the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office said that Molina was head of investor relations and treasurer in 2016 when he learned about the possible sale of ClubCorp to another company.
SEC documents show that Molina, who is now 47 and lives in Frisco, bought 13,600 shares of ClubCorp stock for $11.58 a share based on the information, which was not publicly available. The next day, news of a potential acquisition was made public and ClubCorp shares jumped 15.6 percent. Molina later sold his stock for a $78,000 net profit.
The illegality came to light when the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority contacted ClubCorp four months after Molina bought the shares. ClubCorp officials asked Molina about his stock buy and Molina acknowledged his unlawful trading and promptly resigned from the company.
Molina and his outside legal counsel reported his misconduct to the SEC and cooperated with its investigation. Molina is represented by Bell Nunnally partner Rob Long.
As part of the settlement agreement with the SEC, Molina will disgorge his ill-gotten gains and pay a penalty of $39,230, which is one-half the disgorgement amount, court records show.
“The second of the commission’s three-part mission is to maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets. And insider trading is a direct attack on our markets,” said SEC Regional Director Shamoil Shipchandler. “Corporate insiders owe a duty to their shareholders to safeguard material, nonpublic information, not use it for their own personal gain.”
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Tom Keltner with litigation assistance from Matthew Gulde, and supervised by Scott F. Mascianica and Eric R. Werner.
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