The compliance chief at a Chinese payment processor was charged by the SEC and New York federal prosecutors with violating insider trading laws after sneaking onto to his girlfriend’s computer to view meetings between investment bankers and companies.
Steven Teixeira, who served as chief compliance officer for the U.S. arm of China’s LianLian Global, pleaded guilty to the federal charges under a cooperation agreement. The SEC charges remain outstanding, the agency said on Thursday.
Teixeira allegedly obtained insider information, including advance knowledge of Broadcom’sannounced $65 billion acquisition of VMware from 2022, and shared it with an associate for profit. The SEC says Teixeira got the information from the Outlook calendars and files of his girlfriend, who was employed as an executive assistant at an unnamed New York-based investment bank.
The non-public information included term sheet data and deal planning by a host of technology companies, including for the VMware deal and Thoma Bravo’s planned purchase of Proofpoint, allegedly allowing Teixeira to collect over $730,000 in profit.
Teixeira’s girlfriend, who was not named in the complaint, asked him “to check her work email while she was away during the workday, and to alert her if she received emails that required her attention.”
Proofpoint was taken private in 2021 by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in a $12.3 billion deal, within the timeframe that Teixeira was allegedly trading on insider information. Teixeira purchased options on Proofpoint stock on April 22, 2021, days ahead of the announcement. Broadcom’s deal for VMware has been delayed by regulators.
Teixeira allegedly shared the insider information with his associate, Jordan Meadow, who is also charged with violating federal insider trading laws.
Meadow used the information in his work as an investment advisor, steering his clients towards lucrative opportunities and gaining “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in commissions, the SEC alleged.
Meadow also faces federal charges, which were unveiled on Thursday, in the Southern District of New York.
“Our complaint alleges brazen betrayals of trust by Teixeira, who misappropriated information from his girlfriend’s laptop to make a quick buck, and by industry-veteran Meadow, who was all too eager to use the information to line his pockets,” Scott Thompson, SEC’s Philadelphia associate regional director, said in a press release.
A file photo of Hiroki Totoki, Sony Group Corporation executive, delivering a keynote address at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, on January 6, 2025.
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Sony Group shares rose about 2% Wednesday in volatile trading after the Japanese conglomerate announced a 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) share buyback and operating income beat estimates.
Operating income for the last three months of the financial year came in at 203.6 billion yen, beating mean analyst estimates of 192.2 billion yen, though it was down 11% from the same period last year.
In the earnings report, the Japanese-based electronics, entertainment and finance company announced a stock buyback of shares worth 250 billion yen.
Sony also provided details on a partial spinoff of its financial unit. The company plans to distribute slightly more than 80% of the shares of common stock of the spinoff to shareholders of Sony Group through dividends.
The financial unit will list its financial operation this year and will be classified as a discontinued operation in Sony’s accounting from the current quarter, the company added.
However, Sony’s outlook for the current financial year ending in March was lackluster.
The company forecasted its operating profit to rise a slight 0.3% to 1.28 trillion yen, after flagging a 100 billion yen hit from U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Yet, Sony clarified that the estimated tariff impact did not reflect the trade deal made between the U.S. and China on May 12 and that the actual impact could vary significantly.
A Samsung Group flag flutters in front of the company’s Seocho building in Seoul.
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Samsung Electronics on Wednesday announced that it would acquire all shares of German-based FläktGroup, a leading heating and cooling solutions provider, for 1.5 billion euros ($1.68 billion) from European investment firm Triton.
Samsung said the acquisition would help it expand in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning business as the market experiences rapid growth.
“Our commitment is to continue investing in and developing the high-growth HVAC business as a key future growth engine,” said TM Roh, Acting Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics.
The acquisition of FläktGroup stands to bolster Samsung’s position in the HVAC market against rivals such as LG Electronics.
FläktGroup supplies heating, HVAC solutions to a wide range of buildings and facilities, notably data centers which require a high degree of stable cooling. Samsung said it anticipates sustained growth in data center demand due to the proliferation of generative AI, robotics, autonomous driving and other technologies.
FläktGroup has more 60 major customers, including leading pharmaceutical companies, biotech and food and beverage firms, and gigafactories, according to Samsung’s statement.
Samsung said in March that its HVAC solutions had achieved double-digit annual revenue growth over the past five years, and that the company aimed to boost revenue by more than 30% in 2025.