SEC v. Fred Tinker (insider trading, 2018)

Settled

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In July 2018 the SEC settled proceedings against Synaptics finance vice president Fred Tinker, who bought 10,000 shares in his wife's account while aware of a Chinese investment group's takeover approach. He agreed to pay $89,171.88 disgorgement, $8,506.64 interest and an $89,171.88 penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$89.2k

Disgorgement

$89.2k

Prejudgment interest

$8.5k

Total relief

$187k

Alleged gain

$89.2k

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 in August and September 2015 Tinker, aware of the confidential approach, bought the shares, which gained about $89,172 after Bloomberg reported that Synaptics had rejected an offer and talks were continuing. On his consent, the order requires disgorgement of $89,171.88, prejudgment interest of $8,506.64 and a penalty of $89,171.88, payable in installments.

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. 2018-07-31 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.