SEC v. Peter Cho (insider trading, 2018)

Settled

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In December 2018 the SEC charged banking consultant Peter Cho with buying Virgin America call options after overhearing his then-fiancee's calls about Alaska Air's acquisition, turning about $4,000 into over $250,000. He consented to repay $251,386, plus interest and an equal penalty, $532,777 in all, subject to court approval.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$251k

Disgorgement

$251k

Prejudgment interest

$30k

Total relief

$533k

Alleged gain

$250k

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 Cho listened to the phone calls of his future wife, an investment banker on the deal, and bought short-dated out-of-the-money options before the April 4, 2016 announcement. He consented to an injunction under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 and to disgorgement of $251,386, a penalty of $251,386 and interest of about $30,005 (the total less the other two figures).

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. 2018-12-17 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.