Judge Colleen McMahon of the New York Southern District Court on Tuesday issued an order terminating a case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against individuals involved in an international insider trading scheme.

The order, signed on December 22, 2020, ends the case, as the last of the defendants – George Nikas, has reached a settlement with the SEC.

Under the final judgment against securities trader Nikas, he is permanently restrained and enjoined from violating, directly or indirectly, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, by using any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce, or of the mails, or of any facility of any national securities exchange, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security.

It is further ordered that Nikas will pay a civil penalty in the amount of $5.3 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Let’s recall that in October 2019, the SEC filed an emergency action charging Cohen – an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and Nikas, in connection with an international insider trading scheme relating to trading in the stock of at least two public companies in advance of news that these companies were acquisition targets.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Bryan Cohen learned nonpublic information about the potential acquisitions through his role as an investment banker based in London and New York. Cohen allegedly shared this information with at least one foreign individual who traded on the information and further tipped it to George Nikas. According to the SEC’s complaint, Nikas used the information to net over $2.6 million in illicit profits resulting from trades in stock, American Depositary Shares, and Contracts for Difference, which were traded or hedged on U.S. Exchanges.