Insider-Trading Defendant Settles With SEC

An upstate New York woman who profited from AT&T; insider-trading information passed on by her boyfriend has agreed to settle the case, ending a five-year investigation that involved 20 people, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Sharon Seiden of Boonville was the last defendant in a civil action launched by the SEC in 1995. The SEC abandoned efforts to fine Seiden because of her inability to pay. She was permanently enjoined from violating federal securities laws that bar insider trading involving tender offers. The SEC said Seiden was part of a ring that traded on nonpublic information about AT&T;’s plans to acquire four companies between 1988 and 1991. The defendants got the information, directly or indirectly, from Charles Brumfield, an ex-vice president in AT&T;’s labor relations department, the SEC charged.