SAP co-CEO's ex-assistant settles SEC insider trading charges
(Reuters) - A former board assistant to German software company SAP AG's co-chief executive has agreed to pay $89,155 (54,465.76 pounds) to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission insider trading charges, the regulator said.
According to court papers filed on Monday, David Marchand, 41, learned confidential information about SAP's interest in buying SuccessFactors Inc and Ariba Inc, including its respective "Saturn" and "Angel" code names for the proposed transactions, and bought shares of both before the purchases were announced in December 2011 and May 2012.
The SEC also said Marchand bought SAP American depositary receipts after getting confidential information he had requested from a colleague about the company's financial results for 2011, which included its "best ever" software revenue numbers, before those results were publicly released.
According to the SEC, Marchand worked from September 2011 to February 2012 as a board assistant to SAP's co-chief executive in Walldorf, Germany.
It said that during that time and for a period thereafter, he had access to the executive's email and calendar, as well as other sensitive company materials. Marchand now lives in Campbell, California, the SEC said.
The settlement calls for Marchand to give up $43,500 of illegal profit, pay a $43,500 civil fine, and pay $2,155 of interest. Court approval is required.
Marchand did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a request for comment. It is unclear whether he hired a lawyer for his defence. SAP was not charged.
The case is SEC v. Marchand, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 13-07754.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
