SEC v. Francis J. van Steenberge and Nicolas Zanen (insider trading, 2015)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 4, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

Report an error in this record (sec-francis-j-van-steenberge-insider-trading-2015) by email

The SEC's October 2015 Cheniere Energy insider trading case against Francis van Steenberge and Nicolas Zanen ended, as to van Steenberge, in a final judgment filed on 3 March 2020 in the District of Connecticut on the SEC's motion. It orders $399,662.75 in disgorgement, $33,164.89 in interest and a $399,662.75 penalty. Zanen's consent judgment was entered in June 2016 and his amounts were not read.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$400k

Disgorgement

$400k

Prejudgment interest

$33.2k

Total relief

$832k

Alleged gain

$800k

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 this matter on October 9, 2015 as release LR-23385. The respondents named are Francis J. van Steenberge and Nicolas Zanen (2 individuals, 0 entities).

This library tags the matter as insider trading, based on the conduct the regulator describes. Each tag links to a page explaining how that technique works, what statute it engages, and what penalties comparable actions have attracted. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

On 3 March 2020 the court entered a final judgment against van Steenberge on the SEC's motion, enjoining him from violating Section 10(b) and ordering disgorgement of $399,662.75, prejudgment interest of $33,164.89 and a civil penalty of $399,662.75, $832,490.39 in total (the judgment states a payment of $432,827.64 for the first two items). Zanen, a Cheniere trading executive, moved to approve a consent judgment in May 2016 and the court granted it on 7 June 2016. The SEC's allegation was that the pair agreed to share Zanen's inside information and van Steenberge traded Cheniere options for about $800,000 in gains; the judgment on the SEC's motion is a court order, not a trial finding of those facts. The stored amounts are van Steenberge's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary documents linked above. This page summarises the structured record and does not reproduce them.

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. 2015-10-09 Litigation release published
2. 2016-06-07 Court grants consent judgment as to Zanen (D. Conn.)
3. 2020-03-03 Final judgment entered against van Steenberge (D. Conn.)

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
• Final judgment as to Francis J. van Steenberge (3 Mar 2020)
• Judgment as to Nicolas Zanen (7 Jun 2016)

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.