Two brothers were sentenced Thursday for their participation in a 2014 fraudulent scheme to trade in options ahead of SAP SE’s (SAP) acquisition of Concur Technologies (Concur), which netted them and their co-conspirators hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits.
Douglas Miller, 44, of Dyer, Indiana, who pleaded guilty in September 2018 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and one count of making a false statement, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Philip Simon of the Northern District of Indiana to serve 24 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, and to forfeit $209,915.88 in illegal proceeds from the scheme. Edward Miller, 46, of Munster, Indiana, who pleaded guilty in September 2018 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice, was sentenced by Judge Simon to serve six months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, and to forfeit $222,628.17 in illegal proceeds from the scheme.
According to admissions made in connection with their guilty pleas, Douglas and his brother, Edward Miller obtained material, nonpublic information from Christopher Salis, a global vice president at SAP, about SAP’s September 2014 acquisition of Concur. Douglas and Edward Miller and others then purchased securities in Concur based on this information for the purposes of profiting from these transactions and returning a portion of the profits to Salis, the defendants admitted. Following the acquisition, the Millers and their co-conspirators sold the securities and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits.
The Millers also admitted to taking further steps to conceal their scheme by structuring financial transactions and using “burner” phones to communicate with their co-conspirators. Upon learning of federal investigations into the insider trading scheme, Edward Miller took steps to hinder and impede the investigation, including by destroying electronic data found on the “burner” phones. Douglas Miller also admitted to lying to federal investigators about his involvement in the scheme.
In February 2017, Salis pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud in connection with the scheme. Salis is scheduled to be sentenced on March 22.