http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2003-10-28-fleetboston-insider-trading_x.htm Ex-FleetBoston employee accused of insider trading BOSTON (AP) â?? Federal regulators have accused a former FleetBoston Financial (FBF) investment banking employee in Argentina of insider trading leading up to Monday's announcement the company would be acquired by Bank of America. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Guillermo Garcia Simon, a former FleetBoston employee in Buenos Aires, and relatives stood to make $1 million or more on call options purchased ahead of the merger. A federal judge froze their accounts at the SEC's request, the agency said. Simon, his wife Victoria, and his brother, Andres Garcia Simon, spent $11,000 on 1,110 call options on FleetBoston stock late Friday, accounting for more than half the total trading volume in such options that day, the SEC said. The options entitled the buyers to purchase FleetBoston stock for $35 per share; it was then trading at $31 per share. On Monday, Bank of America announced plans to purchase Boston-based FleetBoston for $45 a share and the company's shares rose 23% to close at $39.20 on the New York Stock Exchange. On Tuesday, FleetBoston shares closed down 40 cents at $38.80. The SEC complaint accuses the defendants of trading while in possession of material, nonpublic information. SEC District Administrator Juan Marcel Marcelino said the commission had no information about how Simon might have known about the merger. Marcelino said Simon worked in investment banking in the company. Marcelino said Guillermo Garcia Simon is believed to be in Argentina, but could not immediately be located for comment. "The person involved has not worked at the company for well over a year," FleetBoston spokesman James Mahoney said. "We're fully cooperating with the SEC and we have no reason to believe that any current Fleet employee was involved in this matter."
