SEC v. Philip Markin (insider trading, 2024)

Settled

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In September 2024 the Securities and Exchange Commission announced settled charges against Philip Markin, the fifth person charged in the scheme to trade ahead of Merck's February 2021 tender offer for Pandion Therapeutics, who it said made about $16,362 on a tip from his cousin Seth Markin. Without admitting or denying, he consented to a judgment, subject to court approval, with an injunction and a $32,724 penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$32.7k

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$32.7k

Alleged gain

$16.4k

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 settlement on September 19, 2024 as release LR-26113, in a Southern District of New York case filed September 10, 2024.

The complaint alleges that Seth Markin misappropriated the deal information from his romantic partner, an associate at a law firm advising Merck, and tipped his cousin, who in turn tipped a friend, Jonathan Becker, charged in 2023.

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. 2024-09-19 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.