Eddie Murray charged with insider trading in SEC probe

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday brought insider trading charges against Hall of Famer Eddie Murray. According to a release from the SEC, Murray was tipped by former Baltimore Orioles teammate Doug DeCinces, who was charged last year.

"It is truly disappointing when role models, particularly those who have achieved so much in their professional careers, give in to the temptation of easy money," Daniel M. Hawke, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's Market Abuse Unit, said in a statement.

According to the SEC, Murray made about $235,314 in illegal profits after Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories Inc. publicly announced its plan to purchase Advanced Medical Optics through a tender offer. Murray agreed to pay $358,151 to settle the SEC's charges.

The SEC alleges that in 2009, Murray used the available cash in his self-directed brokerage account to purchase 17,000 shares of Advanced Medical Optics stock on the basis of confidential information DeCinces provided him.

"Mr. Murray, who is a decent man of principle, has settled this to put the matter to an end and get on with his life," his lawyer, Michael Proctor, said Friday, according to CNN.com. "Eddie Murray is admitting no wrongdoing at all in this matter. The settlement agreement itself states that fact."

The SEC says DeCinces and three tippees made more than $1.7 million in illegal profits, and they agreed to pay more than $3.3 million to settle SEC charges.

The SEC is charging the source of the illegal tips – DeCinces's close friend and neighbor in Laguna Beach, Calif., James V. Mazzo, who was the chairman and CEO of Advanced Medical Optics. The SEC also is charging another friend, David L. Parker, who is a businessman living in Utah.

"Mazzo had repeated personal contacts and communications with DeCinces, who promptly traded and tipped Murray, Parker and others that a deal involving Mazzo's company was imminent," Hawke said. "CEOs and other employees of public companies must resist the lure of sharing confidential information with their friends and always put the interests of their shareholders and company first."

According to the SEC's complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the total unlawful profits from Mazzo's illegal tipping topped $2.4 million.