SEC Charges Tallgrass Energy’s Former Board Member Roy Cook and Four Others with Insider Trading in Advance of Blackstone Acquisition

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against Roy Cook, a former board member of Tallgrass Energy LP, and four of his friends for trading on material nonpublic information in advance of a public announcement that Blackstone Infrastructure Partners had offered to acquire Tallgrass and take it private. The SEC also charged Cook for failing to file required disclosure reports concerning securities transactions by family trusts. All five of the defendants agreed to settlements that, in aggregate, include more than $2.2 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. According to the SEC’s complaint, Cook learned in late July 2019 that Blackstone, which had acquired 44 percent of Tallgrass’s public shares earlier that year, was planning to make an offer to acquire the remainder of Tallgrass’s publicly traded shares.