The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that it obtained final judgments against an NFL player and another defendant who had been charged with insider trading in 2018.
Linebacker Mychal Kendricks, a free agent who last played for the Seattle Seahawks, had been charged by the SEC with insider trading in advance of corporate acquisitions facilitated through coded text messages and FaceTime conversations with a former investment banker, who was also charged.
The SEC’s complaint was filed Aug. 29, 2018, and alleged that Kendricks received illegal tips from co-defendant Damilare Sonoiki, an analyst at an investment bank at the time, about several upcoming corporate mergers. The SEC alleged that Kendricks traded on that information for a profit of about $1.2 million.
On Nov. 2, 2018, the SEC filed a related complaint against Hamed A. Ettu, a family friend of Sonoiki, alleging that Ettu also traded based on information that he received from Sonoiki concerning two upcoming corporate acquisitions for a profit — in his case — of about $93,000.