The former butler to media mogul Bob Sillerman has agreed to pay 66,180 to settle SEC insider trading charges. Graham J. Lefford had been accused of trading on non-public information to buy up shares of a penny stock company that was soon thereafter acquired by Sillerman to become CKX Inc., causing its shares to jump over 6,400%.
The SEC charged that Lefford bought 5,000 shares of the obscure stock for 12 cents a share after seeing faxes from Sillerman's office to his home on Long Island, where Lefford worked. When the deal to create CKX and market the image and name of Elvis Presley was announced, the stock shot to 6.41. Lefford had already lost his job with Sillerman before the SEC brought charges against him (9/27/06 TVBR #188).
He has now agreed to pay back his trading profits of 31,450, plus a penalty of the same amount, plus interest on the original gains, for the total of 66,180, without admitting or denying the government charges.
