SEC v. Balaji Sundarraj and David O'brien (insider trading, 2019)

Settled

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In July 2019 the SEC settled proceedings against Balaji Sundarraj and David O'Brien, who bought Opower stock before Oracle's takeover announcement after Sundarraj overheard his brother-in-law, an Oracle due diligence lawyer. Together they must pay $34,950 disgorgement, $4,787 interest and $57,850 in penalties.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$57.9k

Disgorgement

$35k

Prejudgment interest

$4.8k

Total relief

$97.6k

Alleged gain

—

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 Commission found that Sundarraj overheard a phone call in April 2016, told his friend O'Brien, and both bought stock and sold immediately after the May 2, 2016 announcement, for gains of $12,050 and $22,900. Sundarraj must pay disgorgement of $12,050, interest of $1,650 and a penalty of $34,950; O'Brien $22,900, $3,137 and $22,900. The stored figures are the sums; the earlier record showed Sundarraj's alone.

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. 2019-07-23 Administrative proceeding instituted (cease-and-desist)

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 order

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.