In March, I began tracking here the SEC's trials to date in FY 2014 (which began on October 1, 2013), and the results in each case. On Friday of last week, the jury returned a verdict in what I believe to be the SEC's 14th trial this year--its insider trading case against Nelson Obus, Peter Black and Thomas Strickland related to trading that preceded Allied Capital Corp.'s June 2001 acquisition of SunSource, Inc. 

After a two week trial, a federal jury in the Southern District of New York found on May 30 that all three defendants were not liable for violating the insider trading provisions of the federal securities laws. Following the verdict, Obus criticized the SEC for what he called a "12-year campaign of regulatory overreach." SEC spokesman John Nester said the agency was "disappointed" but respected the jury's verdict.

Including the Obus case,the SEC's scorecard in FY 2014 now includes (to my knowledge) 14 trials. In those cases, the SEC now has four outright victories (in which it won on all of its claims), six losses (in which it lost on all of its claims), and four mixed verdicts (in which it won on some claims and lost on others).

I will try to maintain an updated running list of the SEC's trials in FY 2014. Here is the list as it currently stands:

SEC v. Cuban:  VERDICT—FOR DEFENDANT (Oct. 2013)

SEC v. AIC  Inc.: VERDICT—FOR  SEC (Oct. 2013)

SEC v. True North Finance Corp.: VERDICT—FOR SEC (Oct. 2013)

SEC v. Kovzan: VERDICT—FOR DEFENDANT (December 2013)

SEC v. Jensen: VERDICT—FOR DEFENDANTS (December 2013)

SEC v. Schvacho: VERDICT— FOR DEFENDANT (January 2014)

SEC v. Yang: VERDICT—MIXED (January 2014)

SEC v. Steffes: VERDICT—FOR DEFENDANTS (January 2014)

SEC v. Life Partners: VERDICT—MIXED (Feb. 2014)

SEC v. DiGiorgio: VERDICT—FOR  SEC (Feb. 2014)

SEC v. Quan: VERDICT—MIXED (Feb. 2014)

SEC v. Jacobs: VERDICT—MIXED (March 2014)

SEC v. Wyly: VERDICT—FOR  SEC (May 2014)

SEC v. Obus: VERDICT—FOR DEFENDANTS (May 2014)

If you are aware of any other SEC trials that should be added to the scorecard, please pass them along.

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