Shaohua (Michael) Yin, et al.
U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 26093 / August 30, 2024
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Shaohua (Michael) Yin, et al., Civil Action No. 1:17-cv-00972-JPO (S.D.N.Y.)
SEC Obtains Final Judgment Imposing a $39.5 Million Penalty Against Chinese National Charged with Insider Trading
On August 16, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a final judgment against defendant Shaohua (Michael) Yin, including a penalty of $39.5 million paid out of funds frozen in the brokerage accounts that Yin allegedly used to engage in insider trading. The SEC previously charged Yin with reaping massive profits from insider trading in the shares of Lattice Semiconductor Corporation and DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc.
The SEC's amended complaint alleged that in the weeks leading up to the April 2016 acquisition of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. by Comcast Corp., Yin amassed more than $56 million of DreamWorks stock in the U.S. brokerage accounts of five nominees, all of whom were Chinese nationals. DreamWorks' stock price rose 47.3% once the acquisition was announced. The five accounts allegedly reaped $29 million in illicit profits from the DreamWorks trades. According to the amended complaint, later that year, from July to November 2016, Yin again used the same five nominee accounts to acquire more than $44 million of Lattice stock. Following an early November 2016 announcement that Lattice was being acquired by Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, Inc., the company's stock price increased by over 18%. According to the SEC's amended complaint, Yin obtained another $7 million in alleged insider trading profits from his Lattice trading. Yin, then a partner at a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, allegedly did not trade in DreamWorks and Lattice stock through his own brokerage account, but instead traded through the five nominee accounts from addresses in Beijing and Palo Alto and on a computer that also accessed Yin's email accounts.
The final judgment imposes a $39.5 million penalty on Yin, to be paid out of the funds frozen at the outset of this action. Yin is also permanently restrained and enjoined from violating of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.
On August 25, 2022, judgment was entered against Benjamin Bin Chow, who the SEC alleged to be Yin's source of material non-public information for the Lattice trades, enjoining him from violating Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. On September 8, 2022, Chow was barred from association with any broker, dealer, investment adviser, municipal securities dealer, municipal advisor, transfer agent, or nationally recognized statistical rating organization. Previously, Chow was convicted of criminal violations of 18 U.S.C. § 371, Conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud, and violations of 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b) and 78ff, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 and 240.10b-5(2), and 18 U.S.C. § 2, Securities Fraud, in connection with the Lattice trades. United States v. Chow, Case No. 1:17-cr-00667-GHW (S.D.N.Y.).
The SEC's litigation in this matter is now concluded.
The SEC's enforcement action was litigated by Gary Y. Leung, Daniel O. Blau, Donald W. Searles, Jasmine M. Starr, and Douglas M. Miller of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office and Paul Alvarez of the SEC's Office of General Counsel, with assistance from Matthew Greiner, Bonnie Kartzman, and Sandy Medina-Henderson of the SEC's Office of International Affairs and Jan Jindra of the SEC's Division of Economic Research and Analysis. The SEC's investigation was conducted by Ms. Starr and supervised by Finola H. Manvelian, with assistance from John Rymas of the Enforcement Division's Market Abuse Unit.