By Aruna Viswanatha
WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators
on Thursday sued a former stockbroker who worked for Wells Fargo
& Co and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, accusing him of insider
trading ahead of a Burger King Worldwide Inc deal.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said it obtained a
court order freezing the assets of broker Waldyr Da Silva Prado
Neto, who allegedly put his Miami home up for sale and began
transferring his assets out of the country.
Prado worked for Wells Fargo in Miami when he learned from a
brokerage customer that Burger King would be acquired by private
equity firm 3G Capital Partners Ltd, the SEC said.
Prado used the information to net $175,000 in illicit
profits by trading in the stock, the SEC said.
Prado also tipped off others about the acquisition, the SEC
said.
In May 2010, for example, he emailed a customer and said in
Portuguese, "... if you are around call me at the hotel ... I
have some info ... You have to hear this," according to SEC
documents.
The two spoke by phone and the customer purchased
out-of-the-money Burger King call options during the next two
days, the SEC said.
"Prado's emails and other communications may have been sent
from Brazil and written in Portuguese, but our commitment to
prosecute illegal insider trading on U.S. markets knows no
geographic or language barrier," said Sanjay Wadhwa, deputy
chief of the SEC enforcement division's market abuse unit.
A lawyer for Prado could not immediately be reached for
comment.
A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said his employment with the
company had been terminated. A Wells Fargo spokesman said the
bank was cooperating with the SEC in its investigation. A Burger
King representative had no immediate comment.
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