The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has settled an insider trading case with a Canadian lawyer.

The SEC said Wednesday that it settled a case with Phillip Macdonald, an attorney, who the regulator claims engaged in insider trading in the securities of certain companies ahead of public announcements of planned mergers.

The complaint alleges that between January and June 2005, the wife of a co-defendant learned the identities of companies that were about to be involved in deals in her job as an administrative assistant with Merrill Lynch Canada, Inc. On the basis of the information, Macdonald then purchased securities ahead of the announcements, the SEC said.

Macdonald consented to the entry of a final judgment against him by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, without admitting or denying the allegations in the commission’s complaint, permanently enjoining him from further violations, and ordering him to pay disgorgement of US$810,000.

IE