SEC’s Pharmaceutical Insider Trading Case Yields Quick Deals (1)

An investor relations firm executive and two friends who made half a million dollars in illicit profits from nonpublic information consented to judgment on SEC insider trading claims, with penalties to be set by a New York judge.

Robert Yedid, managing director at an investor communications firm assisting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, tipped Andrew Kaufman and Mark Jacobs to make the trades in exchange for kickbacks, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in its complaint filed last week.

All three defendants agreed to consent orders just days after the SEC brought its claims against them, according to the judgments filed ...