The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that a New York court has entered summary judgment against two Canadian citizens the commission had charged with insider trading in 2007.

The judgment, by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, orders the pair, Shane Bashir Suman and Monie Rahman, to disgorge US$1,039,440 plus prejudgment interest, imposes civil penalties of US$2,000,000 against Suman of US$1,000,000 against Rahman, and permanently enjoins them from further violations securities laws.

The SEC’s complaint alleged that they traded on material, nonpublic information involving a Canadian firms, MDS Inc.’s impending tender offer for the shares of Sunnyvale, Ca.-based Molecular Devices Corp. in late January 2007.

The SEC alleged that Suman learned about secret merger negotiations through access he had to electronic data in his job as an information technology specialist at MDS, then gave that information to his wife, Rahman. In the days before the tender offer became publicly known, Suman and Rahman made just over US$1 million by trading in the securities of Molecular.

“The court found that Suman learned about secret merger negotiations through access he had to electronic data in his job as an information technology specialist at Ontario-based MDS,” the SEC said. And, it says that they traded on that information, generating trading profits of more than $1 million.

The Ontario Securities Commission also has an ongoing case against the Suman and Rahman. Allegations in that case have not been proven.

IE