SEC v. James V. Mazzo, et al. (insider trading, 2020)

Settled

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In January 2020 the SEC announced a court-approved settlement with David Parker, the last tippee in its Advanced Medical Optics case that began with CEO James Mazzo tipping Douglas DeCinces. Parker was ordered to pay $343,954 disgorgement and a $56,046 penalty, ending the litigation.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$56k

Disgorgement

$344k

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$400k

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's 2012 complaint alleged that Advanced Medical Optics chief executive James Mazzo tipped his friend, former baseball player Douglas DeCinces, about Abbott Laboratories' planned acquisition, and that DeCinces passed the information to Parker and four other friends, who each traded.

The December 11, 2019 consent judgment, approved by the court, enjoins Parker under Sections 10(b) and 14(e) and the related rules, orders disgorgement of $343,954 and imposes a civil penalty of $56,046. Mazzo, DeCinces and the four other tippees had already settled, so the settlement resolves the litigation in full. The recorded money is Parker's.

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. 2020-01-02 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.