February 15, 2013

John Kerry - financial update?

Kerry is married to Heinz Foods heiress Teresa Heinz. Kerry has some money but it is dwarfed by the Heinz fortune. Heinz Foods was sold to Berkshire Hathaway recently and the Securities and Exchange Commission noticed an odd stock transaction that benefited the anonymous trader by $1.7 million. From the Wall Street Journal:
SEC Freezes Swiss Account Over Heinz Trades
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has frozen the assets of a Swiss trading account that allegedly made a series of "highly suspicious" trades reaping about $1.7 million ahead of the blockbuster sale of H.J. Heinz Co. HNZ -0.30%

The regulator's move came one day after Heinz said it was selling itself for $23 billion to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRKB +0.56%and Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital in one of the biggest food-industry acquisitions ever.

In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court on Friday, the SEC said the traders invested nearly $90,000 in options that would gain in value if Heinz's share price rose. A day later, after the deal was announced, the traders stood to reap a profit of more than $1.7 million, the lawsuit said.

Regulators began an inquiry into possible insider trading very shortly after the deal was announced, alerted by a spike in options trading the day before, according to people close to the investigation.
It will be interesting to find out who Trader 'X' is -- stupid for one thing, they could have diluted the impact of their trades by opening up multiple accounts. Posted by DaveH at February 15, 2013 9:29 PM
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