FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Senior Correspondent Charlie Gasparino reports the Marwood Group, a political research firm founded by Ted Kennedy Jr., received a “Wells notice” from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement staff earlier in the week indicating the firm be charged with civil insider trading violations.
Full report here.
On the Ted Kennedy Jr.’s Marwood Group being charged with insider trading violations:
“The Marwood Group, a political research firm founded by Ted Kennedy Jr., the son of the late Massachusetts’ senator Ted Kennedy, has received official notification from the Securities and Exchange Commission that its staff plans to recommend to the full commission that the firm be charged with civil insider trading violations. The charges involve a research report that allegedly divulged material non-public information obtained from government sources about a drug company, people at the firm say. The Marwood Group received what’s known as a “Wells Notice” from the SEC enforcement staff earlier in the week through a telephone call, and people there expect a written notification imminently.”
Ted Kennedy Jr.’s Marwood Spokesman Michael McKeon’s response to the charges:
“This make no sense, we are very surprised if you look at the facts, there is no tipper, no materiality and clearly no financial benefit for anyone.”
On the cause of the charges:
“At the center of Marwood’s problems involves whether officials at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provided inside information about a prostate cancer drug developed by the company Dendreon. The center, which is often referred to by the acronym CMS, controls government health-care spending worth billions of dollars annually. A decision by CMS to scale back on such funding would have an impact on a company’s share price, and would be a valuable piece of information for Wall Street traders.”
