SEC v. Kendricks, et al. (insider trading, 2018)

Settled

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In August 2018 the SEC charged football player Mychal Kendricks and investment-bank analyst Damilare Sonoiki with insider trading on merger tips. Kendricks consented to a judgment in March 2020 with $1,188,075 in disgorgement, deemed satisfied by criminal forfeiture, and Sonoiki consented in August 2022 to an injunction and a $15,000 penalty plus an SEC bar.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$15k

Disgorgement

$1.2m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$1.2m

Alleged gain

$1.2m

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 Sonoiki gave Kendricks confidential merger information, that Kendricks bought securities of targets and sold after announcements, once for a return of nearly 400 percent in two weeks, and that he rewarded Sonoiki with cash, tickets and a role in a music video shoot. The SEC charged both under Sections 10(b) and 14(e) and sought disgorgement, interest, penalties and injunctions.

Two later SEC litigation releases show both named defendants settled. On 18 March 2020 the Eastern District of Pennsylvania entered a consent judgment against Kendricks enjoining him and ordering disgorgement of $1,188,075, deemed satisfied by a forfeiture order in his criminal case, where he had pleaded guilty. On 30 August 2022 the court entered a consent judgment against Sonoiki enjoining him and ordering a $15,000 civil penalty. On 19 September 2022 the Commission, with his consent, barred Sonoiki from the securities industry and from penny stock offerings. Both consented without admitting or denying the allegations, according to the 2022 release for Sonoiki and the 2020 release for Kendricks. Sonoiki served one month in prison. The releases do not give a sentence for Kendricks, so none is recorded. Related defendants Hamed Ettu and Mark Ramsey in separate actions are not part of this record.

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. 2018-08-30 Litigation release published
2. 2020-03-18 Consent judgment entered against Kendricks ($1,188,075 disgorgement, deemed satisfied by forfeiture)
3. 2022-08-30 Consent judgment entered against Sonoiki ($15,000 penalty); SEC bar follows on 19 September 2022

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
• SEC litigation release LR-24776 (Kendricks judgment)
• SEC litigation release LR-25524 (Sonoiki judgment)

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 3 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.