A Brampton man has been sentenced to nearly six months in jail and ordered to pay over $1.2 million after admitting to insider trading that netted him more than $1 million in illegal profits.
Harpreet Saini, a former software developer at a newswire agency, used his privileged access to unpublished corporate press releases to make 553 trades between May 2018 and July 2021. According to the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), these trades — based on headlines from 497 unreleased press releases — generated illicit gains exceeding US$770,000, or roughly $1.06 million in Canadian dollars.
Saini pleaded guilty under the Ontario Securities Act and must forfeit all profits, pay an additional $100,000 penalty, and comply with a 10-year ban on trading.
The OSC’s Enforcement Division led the investigation, with Executive Vice President Bonnie Lysyk stressing that insider trading undermines investor confidence. “Employees who have access to confidential corporate information have a duty to safeguard that information and not misuse it for their personal benefit,” Lysyk said.
The case underscores the OSC’s commitment to cracking down on securities-related fraud and market manipulation.