SEC v. Joseph C. Lewis, Carolyn W. Carter, Patrick J. O’Connor, and Bryan L. Waugh (insider trading, 2026)

Judgment entered

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In February 2026 the Securities and Exchange Commission announced final consent judgments against Joseph Lewis, who it said tipped his then-girlfriend Carolyn Carter and his private pilots Patrick O'Connor and Bryan Waugh about two public companies held by a biotechnology fund he controlled. The judgments enjoin all four and total $545,548 in disgorgement, $95,402 in interest and $1,935,148 in penalties, including a $1,636,645 penalty on Lewis.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1.9m

Disgorgement

$546k

Prejudgment interest

$95.4k

Total relief

$2.6m

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 Securities and Exchange Commission announced these judgments on February 24, 2026 as release LR-26489, in a Southern District of New York case filed July 26, 2023. Judgments were entered against Lewis on November 26, 2024, Carter on February 13, 2025, and O'Connor and Waugh on February 4, 2026.

Per-defendant amounts are Carter $241,154.81 penalty, $241,154.81 disgorgement and $43,589.44 interest; O'Connor $24,221.53, $171,886.12 and $29,257.46; Waugh $33,126.86, $132,507.44 and $22,554.64. Carter and Waugh neither admitted nor denied the allegations. The recorded totals add these stated amounts.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

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. 2026-02-24 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.