David Laigaie discusses insider trading case involving former Capital One employee (Law360)
January 15, 2016
David Laigaie of the Philadelphia office was quoted extensively in the January 14 Law360 article “Ex-Capital One Worker May Still Beat Insider Trading Verdict.” The SEC slapped former Capital One employees with a complaint last January, accusing them of downloading information from Capital One about purchases cardholders made at a string of publicly traded retailers and restaurants including Best Buy, Macy’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Buffalo Wild Wings. The article reports that one of the former employees may be able to shake the insider trading verdict handed down Wednesday if he convinces the Third Circuit that the proprietary data he used to project the public companies’ revenues would not have affected the stock-buying decisions of reasonable investors.
“I think it is a very interesting legal issue on appeal and the circuit court is likely to take a very careful look at what makes information material,” says Laigaie. “There’s a real legitimate question as to whether this tiny bit of information about the volume of transactions being run through Capital One credit cards would have any influence on the market buying or selling the stock.”
The full article is available online to Law360 subscribers.