SEC v. Richard T. Cunniffe (insider trading, 2018)

Settled

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In July 2018 the SEC charged former trader Richard Cunniffe with placing trades for himself and Robert Stewart on inside information from Stewart's son, part of a scheme with $1.1 million in profits. He agreed to a settlement of injunction, disgorgement and interest, with no penalty, subject to court approval, and was barred from the securities industry.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

$1.1m

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 Stewart recruited his friend Cunniffe to trade on tips Robert received from his son Sean, an investment banker. Cunniffe cooperated and pleaded guilty in the parallel criminal case. The release does not state disgorgement figures. The $1.1 million is the scheme's total profit, not Cunniffe's share.

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. 2018-07-25 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.