SEC v. Rouzbeh “Ross” Haghighat and others (insider trading, 2025)

Alleged — pending

These are allegations. SEC has filed an action; nothing in it has been proven, and the respondents have not been found liable. Everything described on this page is what the regulator alleges, not what a court has found. See our editorial policy.

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 4, 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 August 2025 the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Chinook Therapeutics director Rouzbeh Haghighat, his brother Behrouz Haghighat, stepdaughter Kirstyn Pearl and friends James Roberge and Seyedfarbod Sabzevari with trading ahead of the June 12, 2023 announcement that Novartis would acquire Chinook, together making over $500,000. The complaint adds that Ross Haghighat bought stock in a custodial account for a minor stepchild four days before. The release reports no outcome; the Justice Department had charged all five.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

$500k

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 August 22, 2025 as release LR-26383, filing in the District of New Jersey.

The SEC seeks injunctions, disgorgement and penalties against all defendants and an officer and director bar against Ross Haghighat.

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.

Checked on 2026-10-04: no outcome found on SEC pages. The SEC litigation-release index, which runs through LR-26664, has no later release naming these defendants.

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. 2025-08-22 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. If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.