The SEC charged a former Amazon manager and her family with illegally making $1.4 million from insider trading
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The Securities and Exchange Commission charged an Amazon Finance manager and two of her family members with insider trading on Monday.
When she worked at Amazon, Laksha Bohra helped prepare numbers used in Amazon's quarterly and annual earnings reports, according to the SEC.
From 2016 to 2018, the SEC alleges that Bohra violated company rules and securities laws by sharing financial information about Amazon's performance with her family, who then made trades based on the information.
Bohra's family made $1.4 million from insider trading, the SEC said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a former Amazon employee and two of her family members with insider trading on Monday. Laksha Bohra and her family made $1.4 million using the information, the SEC alleged.
Bohra was employed in Amazon's tax department, where she routinely looked at and helped prepare numbers associated with Amazon's quarterly and annual earnings, according to an SEC press release. The SEC said that Bohra tipped off her husband, Viky Bohra, to confidential information about Amazon's earnings from January of 2016 through July of 2018, despite quarterly reminder from her work not to do so. Viky Bohra and his father, Gotham, then traded on this information 11 times, the SEC said.
"We allege that the Bohras repeatedly and systematically used Amazon's confidential information for their own gain," SEC Director of San Francisco Regional Office Erin Schneider said in the announcement of the charges. "Employees with access to confidential, potentially market-moving corporate information may not use that information to enrich themselves, their friends, or their families."
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. Voicemails left for Laksha and Viky Bohra seeking comment were not immediately returned.
The SEC charged Laksha, Viky, and Gotham Bohra in federal court in Seattle with violating securities laws. The three face financial penalties including returning the $1.4 million they're alleged to have made from insider trading, plus $118,406 in interest and $1.1 million in penalties. Viky Bohra also faces criminal charges associated with the allegations from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington.
All three Bohras "consented to the entry of final judgments permanently enjoining them from further violations of the charged provisions," the SEC said.
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