SEC v. James Wallace Nall, III, et al. (insider trading, 2019)

Settled

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In September 2019 the SEC charged Alabama developer James Nall with tipping his friend Hale Smith about Golden Enterprises' merger with Utz, and charged Smith, his father, brother and boss, who traded on it. The four traders consented to judgments totalling about $437,129 disgorgement and an equal penalty, subject to court approval.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$437k

Disgorgement

$437k

Prejudgment interest

$62.3k

Total relief

$937k

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 Nall, who learned of the deal from a Golden Enterprises director, did not trade but tipped Smith. The traders' profits were about $437,000. Each trader consented to an injunction, disgorgement, interest and an equal penalty: Michael Smith $139,774.17, Hale Smith $220,625.84, Robert Smith $32,733.98 and Walter Tutt $43,995.32. The stored figures are the sums. The earlier record showed only Michael Smith's penalty. The claims against Nall continued.

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. 2019-09-24 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.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.