Perot Systems Employee Charged With Insider Trading

...well, that was quick.  From the SEC's litigation release this morning:

The SEC alleges that [Reza] Saleh made increasingly large purchases of Perot Systems call options contracts based on material, non-public information that he learned in the course of his employment with, or duties for, two Perot-related private companies and Perot Systems. Immediately following the tender offer announcement on Monday, September 21, Saleh sold all of the call option contracts in the accounts and reaped approximately $8.6 million in illicit profits.

Later that same morning, SEC staff with assistance from the Options Regulatory Surveillance Authority identified Saleh as a suspicious trader. Soon after being contacted by SEC staff, Saleh acknowledged to a Perot Systems director that he knew about the impending transaction when he traded.

-bjmq

Update:  Friday's WSJ has a sympathetic profile of Mr. Saleh.  Turns out he led a critical role in Ross Perot's rescue of EDS employees from Iran following the revolution in 1979.  That's too bad.  He'd have been better off if he wasn't so greedy.