Man Fined for Insider Trading

A San Clemente man has agreed to pay $21,570 in fines for insider trading activity in the stock of his then-employer, Aliso Viejo-based Smith Micro Software Inc., the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.

Steven A. Sambrano, 35, earlier this year helped negotiate a deal between Smith Micro and Compaq Computer Corp., then bought 5,000 shares in the thinly traded Smith Micro at $2.06 per share the day before the agreement was announced on March 12. Sambrano then sold the stocks hours after the announcement for $4.19, a profit of about $10,600, the SEC said.

Sambrano, an account representative, left the company in June, after the SEC began its probe, which resulted in a civil lawsuit. The company was not named in the suit.

“We’re going to look into suspicious trading, even if it’s a small company, particularly in the high-tech area where there are a lot of companies that are newly public,” said Kelly Bowers, assistant regional director of the SEC’s office of enforcement.