Believe Lin

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 23849 / May 31, 2017

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Yu-Cheng Lin, No. 2:17-cv-000875 (D.N.J.)

Federal Court Orders Arrest Warrant for Defendant Charged With Insider Trading and Finds Him in Contempt

On May 23, 2017, a federal court in Newark, New Jersey issued an arrest warrant for a defendant charged with insider trading and found him in contempt of two previously-issued orders.

U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares found that Yu-Cheng Lin, also known as Believe Lin, had violated two prior orders by dissipating assets and refusing to repatriate funds. The judge imposed a $1,000-per-day sanction and ordered the clerk to issue an arrest warrant for Lin. The clerk issued the arrest warrant on May 25, 2017.

In an emergency action filed under seal on February 9, 2017 and unsealed on February 13, 2017, the SEC alleged that Lin traded on material inside information ahead of quarterly earnings announcements on May 5, August 4 and November 3, 2016 by Ubiquiti Networks Inc., a California-headquartered company where Lin had worked from approximately March 2011 until June 2015. Lin allegedly did so by purchasing Ubiquiti common stock, call options and contracts-for-difference in brokerage accounts located in the United States and overseas. On April 3, 2017, the SEC filed an amended complaint alleging that Lin directed or controlled trading by a 34-year-old woman residing in Taipei, Taiwan who was a close associate of Lin and traded Ubiquiti securities in 2014 while Lin was working for the company. The SEC’s amended complaint charges Lin with violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5, and seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains together with prejudgment interest, and civil monetary penalties.

The court granted the SEC’s motion for a temporary restraining order on February 9, 2017 and issued a preliminary injunction on February 24, 2017, each of which imposed an asset freeze and ordered that Lin repatriate money obtained directly or indirectly from the illegal trading and deposit that money into the registry of the court.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Daniel Koster and Brent Mitchell in the Complex Financial Instruments Unit. The case is being supervised by Reid Muoio. The litigation is being led by A. Kristina Littman and Stephan Schlegelmilch and supported by Corinthian Davis.

 

https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2017/lr23849.htm