SEC v. James C. Cope, Esq. (insider trading, 2016)

Settled

✓ 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.

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In October 2016 the SEC alleged that a Tennessee lawyer on Pinnacle Financial Partners' executive committee bought Avenue Financial stock on confidential merger information. The Middle District of Tennessee entered a consent final judgment filed June 16, 2017: disgorgement of $56,302 plus $3,762.69 interest, an injunction and an officer and director bar.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$56.3k

Prejudgment interest

$3.8k

Total relief

$60.1k

Alleged gain

$56k

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 SEC announced this action on October 21, 2016 as release LR-23675. It alleged that James C. Cope learned of the planned merger at a January 5, 2016 meeting and began buying Avenue shares during it, for about $56,000 in gains.

The technique tag is this library's own reading of the conduct the regulator describes; agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

The final judgment, which Cope consented to, permanently enjoins him from violating Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, orders disgorgement of $56,302 (described as unrealized profit) with prejudgment interest of $3,762.69, a total of $60,064.69, and prohibits him from serving as an officer or director of an SEC-reporting company. No civil penalty appears in the pages read; the last page of the judgment was not checked. The criminal parallel flagged on the record is not described in the judgment. The date used is the filing date on the judgment. Checked on 2026-10-04.

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. 2016-10-21 Litigation release published
2. 2017-06-16 Consent final judgment filed

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 James C. Cope

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.