SEC v. Unal Patel and Amish Patel (insider trading, 2018)

Settled

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In September 2018 the SEC settled proceedings against cousins Unal and Amish Patel, who bought PowerSecure call options after a friend at Southern Company revealed its acquisition. Together they must pay $23,299 disgorgement, $2,110 interest and $30,620 in penalties.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$30.6k

Disgorgement

$23.3k

Prejudgment interest

$2.1k

Total relief

$56k

Alleged gain

—

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 Commission found that Unal Patel learned of the deal in a call from a friend at Southern, where he had once interned, told his cousin and housemate Amish, and that the two bought call options the next morning before the $431 million announcement. Unal made $7,321 and Amish $15,978.

Unal must pay disgorgement of $7,321, interest of $599 and a penalty of $14,642; Amish $15,978, $1,511 and $15,978. The stored figures are the sums; the earlier record showed only Unal's penalty and disgorgement.

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. 2018-09-28 Administrative proceeding instituted (cease-and-desist)

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 order

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.