SEC v. Edward T. Kelly (insider trading, 2020)

Settled

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In September 2020 the SEC charged Aceto's former controller Edward Kelly with selling his shares and options while a consultant who knew of poor results and an impairment charge, and announced a consent settlement with a $170,228 penalty and an officer-and-director bar, subject to court approval.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$170k

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$170k

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 Securities and Exchange Commission announced the matter on September 23, 2020 as litigation release 24912, filed in the Eastern District of New York.

After retiring in March 2018, Kelly was retained to help close Aceto's books for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 and allegedly learned of weak sales and earnings and a pending impairment. The complaint says he sold all his shares and exercised and sold in-the-money options, gaining or avoiding more than $85,000.

Without admitting or denying the allegations, Kelly consented to an injunction, an officer-and-director bar and the penalty. Court approval was still pending, so the status is settled, not a final judgment.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

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. 2020-09-23 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.