SEC v. James V. Mazzo, et al. (insider trading, 2018)

Settled

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In November 2018 the SEC announced a settlement with former Advanced Medical Optics chief executive James Mazzo, accused of tipping his friend, ex-baseball player Douglas DeCinces, about Abbott's acquisition. Mazzo agreed to a $1.5 million penalty and a five-year officer-and-director bar, subject to court approval; the case against tippee David Parker continued.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1.5m

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$1.5m

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 SEC alleged that Mazzo repeatedly gave DeCinces confidential information on the Abbott takeover talks and that DeCinces bought AMO securities and tipped five friends, with his trading yielding over $1.3 million and his tippees another $1 million. DeCinces and four tippees had already settled. Mazzo, without admitting or denying the allegations, agreed to an injunction under the antifraud and tender offer provisions, the penalty and the bar.

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. 2018-11-14 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.