In a second emergency action alleging insider trading in the securities of Reebok International Ltd. (Reebok), the US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged eight additional individuals who reaped illegal profits. The Commission has now identified more than $6 million in illicit gains related to the insider trading. The illegal trading took place in domestic and offshore brokerage accounts held by residents of the US, Croatia and Germany, the Commission alleged.

Acting on the Commission’s request, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has issued temporary restraining orders that freeze the proceeds of trading in Reebok securities in the domestic accounts and require the repatriation and freezing of the proceeds in the foreign accounts.
Mark K. Schonfeld, director of the Commission’s Northeast Regional Office, said, Once again, we have taken immediate action to prevent the dissipation of ill-gotten profits both within and outside the United States. This will preserve the proceeds of the trading pending resolution of this case.”

On August 5, 2005, the Commission obtained a court order freezing a securities account of a Croatian national and resident, in which a series of highly profitable and timely trades of out of the money” Reebok call options occurred in the two days prior to an August 3, 2005 announcement that Reebok had agreed to be acquired by adidas-Salomon AG.