VEGAS INC coverage
Former Las Vegas gaming executive R. Brooke Dunn has agreed to pay a fine of $181,594 to settle a federal complaint alleging he was involved in an illegal insider stock trading incident.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Dunn, a former Shuffle Master Inc. executive, in 2009.
The SEC charged that after Dunn, a senior vice president, learned in February 2007 that Shuffle Master would report disappointing quarterly earnings, he tipped off a friend.
The friend, Nicholas P. Howey of Darnestown, Md., used this non-public information to post a gain of $237,000 in trading of Shuffle Master securities, the SEC lawsuit alleged.
In late 2008, Dunn left Shuffle Master for undisclosed reasons. He had been placed on administrative leave with pay in November 2008 after learning of the SEC insider trading investigation.
Shuffle Master makes casino equipment including card shufflers.
In the settlement agreement finalized last week, Dunn didn’t admit or deny the allegations but agreed to pay a $181,594 civil penalty.
Dunn also agreed that in the future, should the SEC move to bar him from serving as an officer or director of public companies, he’ll be “precluded from arguing that he did not violate the federal securities laws as alleged in the complaint.”
His friend, Howey, also agreed to settle the SEC lawsuit by agreeing he is liable to pay $181,594, a revised amount representing profits gained and losses avoided thanks to Dunn’s insider information; plus interest of $30,403 and a fine of another $181,594.