SEC v. Sean Stewart, et al. (insider trading, 2019)

Settled

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The SEC reported that on August 12, 2020 the Southern District of New York entered a final consent judgment against investment banker Sean Stewart, enjoining him from future insider trading violations. He had been convicted in the parallel criminal case and sentenced to two years in prison.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 Sean Stewart tipped his father, Robert, about mergers involving clients of two investment banks, and that Robert and a partner traded for about $1.1 million in proceeds. Robert Stewart and Richard Cunniffe pleaded guilty and settled the SEC's claims.

The release reports that the Second Circuit overturned Sean Stewart's first criminal conviction and three-year sentence and ordered a new trial, and that a jury returned a guilty verdict again on September 23, 2019.

Outcome. Litigation release 24867 (August 13, 2020) says the court entered a final consent judgment against Sean Stewart on August 12, 2020. The judgment permanently bars further violations of the antifraud provisions, including the tender-offer rule, and the release states no money amount for him. It reports that he was found guilty by a jury and received a two-year prison term, and that his father and Richard Cunniffe had pleaded guilty and settled the SEC's claims against them. The release does not describe the terms beyond the injunction, and the retrial and appeal history is not covered by it.

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. 2019-09-26 Litigation release published
2. 2020-08-12 Final consent judgment entered against Sean Stewart

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
• SEC litigation release 24867 (final judgment)

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.

Same matter

The library links these 4 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.