US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged five doctors,including some of Indian origin,in an insider trading case and the physicians have agreed to pay more than $1.9 million to settle the charges. The doctors were charged of insider trading in the shares of a medical professional liability insurance company,on the basis of confidential information about an anticipated acquisition,SEC said in a statement late on Tuesday. The SEC had charged that Apparao Mukkamala,one of the five doctors,learned confidential information from board meetings and other communications about the anticipated acquisition of American Physicians Capital Inc (ACAP) by another insurance company. Mukkamala in turn shared the non-public information with fellow physicians and friends Suresh Anne,Jitendra Prasad Katneni and Rao A K Yalamanchili as well as his brother-in-law Mallikarjunarao Anne. The five physicians each purchased ACAP stock based on confidential information about the impending sale in the months leading up to a public announcement. Collectively,they made more than $623,000 in illegal profits on their ACAP stock following the announcement, the regulator said. The five doctors have agreed to pay over $1.9 million to settle the case without admitting or denying the charges.
