SEC v. Michael Trahan (insider trading, 2017)

Settled

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In June 2017 the SEC charged Michael Trahan, a consultant to The Shaw Group, with buying Shaw stock after a Shaw employee told him of its pending acquisition. He consented to a judgment with $69,735 disgorgement, $10,957 interest and a $69,735 penalty, subject to court approval.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$69.7k

Disgorgement

$69.7k

Prejudgment interest

$11k

Total relief

$150k

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 complaint alleged that in July 2012, while consulting for Shaw, Trahan learned of the impending acquisition by Chicago Bridge & Iron and, the same day, bought 5,600 Shaw shares with about 86 percent of the cash in his account. His consulting company was bound by a confidentiality agreement with Shaw. He sold after the announcement for a profit of $69,735.

Without admitting or denying the allegations, Trahan consented to a permanent injunction, disgorgement of $69,735, prejudgment interest of $10,957 and a civil penalty of $69,735. The release says the settlement was subject to court approval and notes assistance from criminal authorities.

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. 2017-06-07 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.