SEC-LR-26172

Robert Brian Thompson
(SEC) Litigation Release No. 26172 / November 19, 2024
SEC v. Robert Brian Thompson, No. 3:24-cv-00800-MHL (E.D. Va., filed Nov. 8, 2024)
SEC Charges Richmond Federal Reserve Banking Supervisor with Insider Trading

• Excerpt: On November 8, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed insider trading charges against Robert Brian Thompson, a long-time banking supervisor and examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, for allegedly using material nonpublic information to trade in stock and options of two publicly traded banks that were under his supervisory purview.

According to the SEC’s complaint, in October 2023, Thompson, of Moseley, Virginia, obtained a preview of an upcoming positive earnings announcement by one of the banks in his supervisory portfolio. Based on that information, Thompson allegedly bought $678,000 worth of the bank’s stock hours before the scheduled announcement, which resulted in $79,346 of ill-gotten profits. The SEC’s complaint further alleges that, in January 2024, Thompson learned that a different bank in his supervisory portfolio would be disclosing unexpected loan losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars as part of an upcoming earnings announcement. Thompson allegedly leveraged that material nonpublic information to buy thousands of options on the bank’s stock two days before the scheduled announcement, which led to $505,527 of ill-gotten profits.

• SEC-PR-2411
• Insider Trading
• SEC Complaint (PDF 10-pages)