NEW YORK – The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the husband of former Playboy Enterprises CEO Christie Hefner that charged him with insider trading in the company’s stock. It also said the defendant has agreed to a $168,352 settlement, subject to court approval, without admitting or denying the charges.
William Marovitz “misappropriated material, non-public information from his wife,” the daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and CEO of the adult entertainment company “during most of the trades at issue,” the complaint argued. Overall, he made profits and avoided losses totaling $100,952.40 by using insider information in five cases, it charged.
The complaint also explained: “Despite instructions from his wife that he should not trade in shares of Playboy and a warning from the general counsel of Playboy about his buying or selling Playboy stock, Marovitz bought and sold shares of Playboy in his own brokerage accounts between 2004 and 2009 ahead of public news announcements related to Iconix’s potential acquisition of Playboy, Playboy’s negative earnings announcements and Playboy’s offering of stock.”
In the lawsuit, the SEC asked the court to order Marovitz to “disgorge the ill-gotten gains” and pay civil penalties.
Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
