At a hearing held Friday, the Ontario Securities Commission approved a settlement agreement entered into with OSC staff and Rajeev Thakur.

In the settlement agreement, Thakur admitted that he committed illegal insider trading. He purchased and sold securities of Celestica Inc. while in a special relationship with the company and with knowledge of material information that had not been generally disclosed. Thakur admitted that he was aware of Celestica’s financial results before those results were generally disclosed.

While employed at Celestica as a director of outsourcing strategies, Thakur gained unauthorized access to the e-mail of all members of Celestica, including senior management. He then made a series of trades which resulted in a profit of approximately $642,056.

In approving the settlement agreement, the OSC ordered Thakur to:
• disgorge to the OSC the amount of $642,056;
• pay an administrative penalty of $481,542; and
• pay $25,000 in costs.

In addition, the OSC order permanently bans Thakur from acting as an officer or director of any registrant or issuer, and requires him to permanently cease trading in securities, with some limited exceptions for a mutual fund account.

In approving the settlement agreement, James Turner, panel chair, said, “This conduct constitutes blatant insider trading. We have applied the principle that no one should profit from their breach of the Securities Act. The administrative penalty imposed constitutes a very substantial portion of Mr. Thakur’s net assets.”

Copies of the settlement agreement and order are available on the OSC’s website.

IE