SEC Says 5 Made Pinkerton’s Inside Trades

A Swedish stockbroker and four unidentified clients of his firm made $175,000 in illegal profits from trading of Pinkerton’s Inc. shares purchased just before Securitas said it would acquire the Westlake Village-based security services company. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Goran Heden, a broker with Den Norske Banke, and unknown clients of the firm bought 15,000 shares in Pinkerton’s last Friday for $17 each. They sold all their shares Monday after Stockholm-based Securitas announced plans to buy Pinkerton’s for $29 a share. The stock rose to as much as $28.75, a 70% increase. Simultaneous with the SEC filing the complaint in a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, a judge temporarily froze $425,000 of sale proceeds in the defendants’ accounts, including about $175,000 in allegedly illicit profits. A March 8 hearing has been set. Pinkerton’s shares fell 6 cents to close at $28.56 on the New York Stock Exchange.