SEC v. Amer Deeba (insider trading, 2018)

Settled

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In August 2018 the SEC charged former Qualys chief commercial officer Amer Deeba with tipping his brothers that the company had missed its forecast, helping them avoid $581,170 in losses. He agreed to a $581,170 penalty and a two-year officer-and-director bar, subject to court approval.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$581k

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$581k

Alleged gain

$581k

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The SEC alleged that Deeba, who had gifted his brothers Qualys shares in 2005, learned in April 2015 that the company had missed its sales forecast and told them, and that they sold all their shares before the results were announced. The stock fell 25 percent. Deeba made no profit himself. Without admitting or denying the allegations he agreed to an injunction under Section 10(b), the penalty and the bar.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Insider trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2018-08-30 Litigation release published

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEC litigation release

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.