Regulator charges Tyler Loudon with insider trading in case that could fuel arguments about working from home
US regulators have accused a man of making $1.8m (£1.4m) by trading on confidential information he overheard while his wife was on a remote call, in a case that could fuel arguments against working from home.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it charged Tyler Loudon with insider trading after he “took advantage of his remote working conditions” and profited from private information related to the oil firm BP’s plans to buy an Ohio-based travel centre and truck-stop business last year.
The SEC claims that Loudon, who is based in Houston, Texas, listened in on several remote calls held by his wife, a BP merger and acquisitions manager who had been working on the planned deal in a home office 20ft (6 metres) away.
The regulator said Loudon went on a buying spree, purchasing more than 46,000 shares in the takeover target, TravelCentres, without his wife’s knowledge, weeks before the deal was announced on 16 February 2023. TravelCentres of America’s stock soared by nearly 71% after the deal was announced. Loudon then sold off all of his shares, making a $1.8m profit.
It’s easy to blame working from home for this but the fact is that this happens all the time, and has happened even when everyone was in office. The problem is people breaking the law, not people not having to commute.
In this case this idiot seriously thought no one would notice. They did, he’s going to jail. The system worked. No reason to make this about anything other than his behavior.
Because she’s liable too. He broke the law and implicated her in a crime.
That also doesn’t have anything to do with working from home. Insider trading based on information you gleaned from your spouse’s or friend’s or mom’s job has been happening for as long as the stock market has been in existence. Would the situation be different if she had been talking about how excited she was about this merger over dinner and he’d acted on that information? The burden is on him to not break the law, but employers will use stuff like this to stupidly argue against working from home.