The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken legal action against a former finance manager at Amazon.com, Inc., along with two family members, for alleged insider trading activities tied to the company’s earnings announcements between January 2016 and July 2018.
The SEC’s complaint centers on Laksha Bohra, who held a senior management position in Amazon’s tax department. It alleges that she acquired highly confidential information about Amazon’s financial performance and shared it with her husband, Viky Bohra.
According to the complaint, Viky Bohra and his father, Gotham Bohra, subsequently engaged in trading based on this privileged information, resulting in illicit gains of approximately $1.4 million.
This legal action, filed by the SEC in a federal court in Seattle, charges all three Bohras with violations of anti-fraud provisions within federal securities laws. As part of the settlement, they have agreed to pay a total disgorgement of $1,428,094, total prejudgment interest of $118,406, and total penalties of $1,106,399.
In parallel developments, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington has also filed criminal charges against Viky Bohra.
Erin Schneider, Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office, commented, «We allege that the Bohras repeatedly and systematically used Amazon’s confidential information for their own gain. Employees with access to confidential, potentially market-moving corporate information may not use that information to enrich themselves, their friends, or their families.»
At the time of reporting, none of the Bohras had responded to a Reuters request for comment. Amazon declined to provide a statement on the matter.
