SEC v. David A. Altom and Gabriel V. Graven (insider trading, 2019)

Settled

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In May 2019 the SEC settled proceedings against Seventy Seven Energy manager David Altom and his friend Gabriel Graven over trading ahead of Patterson-UTI's acquisition. Graven must pay $126,835 disgorgement, $10,956 interest and a $136,460 penalty; Altom an $85,000 penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$221k

Disgorgement

$127k

Prejudgment interest

$11k

Total relief

$359k

Alleged gain

$127k

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 Altom tipped Graven, who bought 6,614 shares and tipped another person who bought 500. The share price rose about 70 percent after the December 12, 2016 announcement; Graven's profit was $126,835.35. The stored penalty is the sum of both respondents' penalties.

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. 2019-05-29 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.