Van Gilder paying $150,000 to settle civil insider trading suit
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Former Denver insurance executive Michael Van Gilder has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a federal civil lawsuit filed last year accusing him of insider trading, the Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed Monday.
Mr. Van Gilder, former CEO of Denver-based Van Gilder Insurance Corp., and Roger Parker, former CEO of Delta Petroleum Corp., were named in the civil action that was filed in connection with an earlier criminal indictment that charged Mr. Van Gilder with illegally profiting from a December 2007 purchase of stock in the oil and gas exploration company.
Although Mr. Van Gilder has settled the civil litigation, the SEC has not yet reached an agreement with Mr. Parker, according to a spokesman for the SEC.
However, in a related development, Stephen Diltz, the broker who placed the trades on behalf of Mr. Van Gilder, has agreed to pay the SEC more than $60,000 in profits he made on Delta trades for himself based on Mr. Van Gilder's purchases, according to the settlement, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver.
Both settlement payments include penalties and interest. U.S. District Judge John Kane still must approve the settlements in which Mr. Van Gilder and Mr. Diltz neither admit nor deny the allegations the SEC made in its lawsuit.
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Mr. Van Gilder, who resigned his CEO post last October, was sentenced in August to five years' probation, six months of house arrest and a $5,000 fine, after pleading guilty to one count of securities fraud.
Also, as part of his plea agreement, Mr. Van Gilder paid back $86,100 of his ill-gotten gains as a result of the insider trading incident.
Meanwhile, USI Insurance Services L.L.C. announced in December that it was acquiring Van Gilder Insurance for an undisclosed sum.
