Saini was also fined over $1 million
The Ontario Securities Commission has sentenced Harpreet Saini, former software developer for a newswire distribution network, to prison for six months less a day for insider trading pursuant to s. 76(1) of Ontario’s Securities Act.
Saini has also been ordered to pay out $1,436,393.66: $1,149,114.93 for the disgorgement of all his profits plus $100,000 and a mandatory 25 percent fine surcharge set by the Provincial Offences Act. Moreover, he will be subject to trading bans for a decade pursuant to the Securities Act.
Saini pleaded guilty to the charge back on July 25, 2024. He admitted that over May 2018-July 2021, he traded securities 553 times based on 497 unpublished press release headlines he obtained from his then-employer, a corporate press release-centered newswire distribution network. He earned net profits of about US$674,154, while co-accused party John Natividad, also a system developer with the same company, netted about US$ 280,454.
Saini and Natividad were charged with fraud and insider trading on September 30, 2022 by the OSC’s Criminal Investigations & Prosecutions team. The US Securities and Exchange Commission, which assisted the OSC, also filed insider trading charges against Saini and Natividad in a civil complaint to New Jersey district court.
Natividad’s charges remain before the court, the OSC said. Both Saini and Natividad are based in Brampton.
“Employees who have access to confidential corporate information have a duty to safeguard that information and not misuse it for their personal benefit. Insider trading is illegal, and it erodes investor confidence in our markets,” said Bonnie Lysyk, OSC’s executive vice president, enforcement, in a statement.
The OSC prosecutes Securities Act-related charges. The Criminal Investigations & Prosecutions team is under the OSC’s enforcement division, and it investigates securities-related frauds, market manipulation, and related misconduct such as Capital Markets Tribunal breaches and violations of court orders and bans.
