SEC v. Matthew Groom (insider trading, 2024)

Settled

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 3, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In October 2024 the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Matthew Groom, an IT consultant to Spero Therapeutics, with trading ahead of the May 3, 2022 announcement that Spero was suspending commercialisation of its lead drug and downsizing, avoiding losses of about $13,000. He consented, subject to court approval, to an injunction, a five-year officer and director bar, $12,936.86 in disgorgement, $2,376.22 in interest and a $12,936.86 penalty, roughly $28,000 in total.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$12.9k

Disgorgement

$12.9k

Prejudgment interest

$2.4k

Total relief

$28.3k

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 this matter on October 15, 2024 as release LR-26159, filing in the District of Massachusetts.

The complaint alleges that Groom traded on non-public knowledge of the company's plans, in violation of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act. The $28,000 in the release's headline is the total of disgorgement, interest and penalty, not the disgorgement alone.

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. 2024-10-15 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.