SEC v. Eric Hannelius (insider trading, 2024)

Settled

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In September 2024 the Securities and Exchange Commission settled with Eric Hannelius, finding that he bought Digital World Acquisition Corp. securities in 2021 on confidential merger talks with Trump Media & Technology Group that DWAC director Bruce Garelick passed to him. He agreed to a cease-and-desist order, $168,206 in disgorgement, $29,400 in interest and an equal penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$168k

Disgorgement

$168k

Prejudgment interest

$29.4k

Total relief

$366k

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 issued this settled order on September 27, 2024 (Release No. 34-101210).

The order finds that Garelick, as a DWAC director owing a duty of confidentiality, communicated the merger negotiations to Hannelius in September and October 2021, and that Hannelius traded knowing or recklessly disregarding that the information was material, non-public and disclosed in breach of that duty.

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. 2024-09-27 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.