FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2022-105
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against David Roda, a former software engineer at Penn National Gaming’s subsidiary Penn Interactive Ventures, in connection with the parent company’s $2 billion acquisition of Toronto-based Score Media and Gaming, Inc.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Philadelphia, alleges that, while employed at Penn Interactive, which provides online and mobile gambling experiences for Penn National, Roda was given confidential information about Penn National’s interest in acquiring Score Media along with admonitions not to trade on that information. In breach of his duties, Roda purchased 500 out-of-the-money call options on Score Media in the weeks and days leading up to the announcement of the acquisition. Additionally, Roda tipped his longtime friend, Andrew Larkin, also charged by the SEC, who then purchased 375 Score Media shares. According to the SEC’s complaint, Score Media’s stock price increased nearly 80 percent after Penn National and Score Media publicly announced their deal, following which Roda and Larkin sold their holdings for unlawful profits of $560,762 and $5,602, respectively.
"As we allege in our complaint, Roda was entrusted by his employer with critical, market-moving information, and he betrayed that trust by using the information to trade and also tip his friend so they could both profit," said Scott A. Thompson, Co-Acting...
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https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-105