Former Tricon CFO Settles SEC Charges

The former chief financial officer of Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. settled insider trading charges involving his purchase of 5,000 Tricon shares in August 1998.

Robert C. Lowes, whose former firm owns hundreds of Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell and other fast-food restaurants, agreed to pay $58,692, including $25,625 in allegedly ill-gotten gains, to settle charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency said.

An attorney for Lowes, a former Burger King Corp. executive who left Tricon in June 1999, wasn’t available for comment.

Lowes, a 56-year-old California resident, bought about 5,000 shares of Tricon common stock on Aug. 17, 1998, with advance knowledge of improved financial projections for the company, the SEC alleged. The company disclosed the improved results two days later. Lowes profited $25,625 on the trade, the SEC said.

Lowes neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s charges.