Hedge fund pays $21.5 million penalty

Level Global Investors L.P. agreed April 29 to pay $21.5 million to settle charges that its co-founder and several employees had engaged in inside trading of Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corp. securities.

According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, former analyst Spyridon Adondakis allegedly had obtained financial performance information illegally about the two companies and passed on the information to co-founder Anthony Chiasson to execute trades and reap “millions of dollars in illegal profit.”

Following news reports in 2011 that the government would investigate the company, Level Global Investors announced it would shut down, which it is still in the process of doing.

“The insider trading at Level Global was hardly an isolated event ”“ it occurred repeatedly, and involved multiple companies and multiple quarterly announcements,” Sanjay Wadhwa, a SEC senior associate director, said in a press release. “This settlement serves as another reminder that the SEC will hold hedge fund managers accountable when their employees violate the securities laws.”

The company has not admitted or denied the charges, however Adondakis has previously pleaded guilty in a parallel settlement for insider trading. The SEC is still pursuing insider trading charges against Chiasson, who, in a parallel proceeding, was convicted of securities fraud last year.