SEC Charges NFL Player and Former Investment Banker With Insider Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a professional football player and a former investment banker with insider trading in advance of corporate acquisitions facilitated through coded text messages and FaceTime conversations. The SEC alleges that after meeting at a party, Mychal Kendricks began receiving illegal tips from Damilare Sonoiki, an analyst at an investment bank who had access to confidential, nonpublic information about upcoming corporate mergers. Kendricks allegedly made $1.2 million in illegal profits by purchasing securities in companies that were soon to be acquired and then selling his positions after the deals were publicly announced, in one instance generating a nearly 400 percent return on his investment in just two weeks.