Steven Harrold, a former Coca-Cola Enterprises vice president, has been charged with insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Harrold is accused of buying company stock using his wife’s brokerage account after learning that CCE had agreed to acquire Coca-Cola’s bottling operations in Norway and Sweden in February 2010. The charges said he made $86,850 the next day when the deal was announced publicly and the stock price increased 30 percent.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in California, said Harrold, who lives in Los Angeles and London, signed non-disclosure agreements on numerous occasions and periodically received blackout notices prohibiting him from trading company stock when in possession of confidential information. He was told in early January 2010 of CCE's desire to pick up Coke's Norwegian and Swedish operations, it says.
He allegedly bought 15,000 CCE shares in his wife’s brokerage account on Feb. 24, the day before the transaction's announcement. T
The complaint seeks a financial penalty against Harrold, repayment of the money plus interest and prohibition from serving as an officer or director of a public company.
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