May 14, 2015: The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Spiral Toys (STOY) CFO, Robert Stewart and his son, Sean Stewart, a banker at Perella Weinberg Partners, with insider trading.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York concurrently announced criminal charges against the Stewarts. I found out about this this morning,” Spiral Toys Chief Executive Mark Meyers told CFO Journal Thursday. “I’ve obviously left plenty of messages [with Robert Stewart],” he said.
According to reports, STOY is still gathering information and has asked a securities attorney to investigate the matter. Interestingly, STOY has been the subject of several Pump & Dump campaigns, making CEO Mark Myers' claims of surprise about the allegations somewhat dubious.
According to the SEC, the Stewarts used “coded e-mail messages disguised as discussions about golf.” Sean Stewart “routinely tipped” his father with “confidential information about future mergers and acquisitions involving clients of two investment banks where he has worked during the past few years,” the release said.
Robert Stewart joined Spiral Toys in September. The company makes stuffed animals called CloudPets, which can play messages recorded in a mobile application.