Legal Ethics
Okla. Lawyer Accused of Selling Stock Based on Law Firm Knowledge
Posted Apr 29, 2009, 06:09 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A Tulsa, Okla., lawyer accused of selling stock based on knowledge acquired from a banking client at his law firm, Frederic Dorwart, has agreed to settle the civil charges.
Matthew J. Browne, a 56-year-old oil and gas lawyer, was accused of selling his stock in SemGroup Energy after he learned the company defaulted on a $50 million margin call to a law firm banking client, the Tulsa World reports.
Browne agreed to pay double the loss of $81,773 he would have suffered if he had held onto his stock until SemGroup’s financial troubles became public, Reuters reports. Browne did not admit or deny the SEC charges, according to a press release.
The SEC complaint (PDF) did not reveal the lender and did not reveal the name of Browne’s law firm, according to the stories. Tulsa World contacted Frederic Dorwart, and the law firm confirmed that Browne worked there until he was fired last year. The complaint said Browne had worked at the firm for eight years and had provided legal advice on swaps and derivative agreements.
The Tulsa World story says previous reports have identified Frederic Dorwart as general counsel to the Bank of Oklahoma.