SEC v. Damon Hovannisian, et al. (insider trading, 2017)

Settled

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In August 2017 the SEC charged four relatives and a friend with trading International Rectifier stock ahead of its acquisition by Infineon, on information Damon Hovannisian learned from his wife. All four consented to judgments totalling about $155,756 disgorgement and $308,318 in penalties, subject to court approval.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$308k

Disgorgement

$156k

Prejudgment interest

$15.4k

Total relief

$479k

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 complaint alleged that Damon Hovannisian learned of the deal from his wife, a senior employee, had a friend buy shares for him, and tipped his father Vernon, brother Vincent and family friend Eddie Arakelian, who each traded before the announcement. The four made about $155,000.

The settlements, subject to court approval, require disgorgement of $3,194.49 (Damon), $111,145.23 (Vernon), $5,635.12 (Vincent) and $35,781.20 (Arakelian), which total $155,756.04, plus interest totalling $15,399.47 and penalties of $155,756.04, $111,145.23, $5,635.12 and $35,781.20 respectively. The stored figures are these sums.

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. 2017-08-11 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.