Childs Walker, The Baltimore Sun –
Orioles Hall of Famer Eddie Murray has agreed to pay $358,151 to settle charges that he illegally profited from an insider trading scheme involving former teammate Doug DeCinces, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday.
Murray, who was in Baltimore last weekend for the unveiling of a statue honoring him at Camden Yards, made $235,314 in illegal profits, according to the SEC charges. In paying the settlement, Murray neither admitted to nor denied the allegations.
He has declined comment on his connection to the case several times since his name was linked to the investigation in June.
“It is truly disappointing when role models, particularly those who have achieved so much in their professional careers, give in to the temptation of easy money,” said Daniel M. Hawke, chief of the SEC enforcement division’s Market Abuse unit and director of the Philadelphia regional office, in a news release.
DeCinces, a former Orioles third baseman, paid a $2.5 million fine last year to settle insider trading charges against him.
The SEC alleges that on Jan. 7, 2009, Murray used all of the cash in a self-directed brokerage account to purchase 17,000 shares of California-based Advanced Medical Optics, a company chaired by DeCinces’ neighbor. The SEC alleges that Murray sold all of the shares shortly after the company was purchased by Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories Inc. five days later.
