A
general
view
of
the
BP
logo
and
petrol
station
forecourt
sign
on
January
22,
2024
in
Southend,
United
Kingdom.
John
Keeble
|
Getty
Images
News
|
Getty
Images
The
husband
of
a
former
BP
merger
and
acquisitions
manager
pleaded
guilty
to
securities
fraud
related
to
insider
trading
by
eavesdropping
on
his
wife’s
work
calls
while
she
was
handling
a
potential
acquisition
of
TravelCenters
of
America,
a
fuel
and
truck
stop
operator.
Tyler
Loudon,
a
Houston
resident,
earned
$1.76
million
with
the
illicit
trades
based
on
nonpublic
knowledge
of
the
possible
acquisition
at
his
wife’s
company,
according
to
U.S.
Attorney
Alamdar
Hamdani
in
the
Southern
District
of
Texas.
Loudon,
due
to
be
sentenced
May
17,
faces
a
maximum
possible
sentence
of
five
years
in
prison
and
a
$250,000
fine.
As
part
of
his
plea,
he
agreed
to
forfeit
the
$1.76
million
of
illegal
profits.
Separately,
the
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
filed
a
civil
complaint
against
Loudon
related
to
the
same
conduct,
which
he
did
not
contest.
“Mr.
Loudon
made
a
terrible
mistake
in
judgment
for
which
he
has
taken
full
responsibility,”
Loudon’s
lawyer,
Peter
Zeidenberg,
told
CNBC.
Authorities
said
that
Loudon
in
2022
learned
of
BP’s
confidential
plans
to
acquire
TravelCenters
in
2022
while
working
remotely
in
earshot
of
his
wife,
as
many
couples
were
due
to
pandemic-era
work-from-home
policies.
In
December
2022,
Loudon
secretly
listened
to
his
wife’s
private
work
calls
discussing
BP’s
acquisition
of
TravelCenters
while
they
were
working
remotely
in
a
small
Airbnb
during
a
trip
to
Rome,
according
to
the
SEC’s
civil
complaint
filed
in
Houston
federal
court.
After
Rome,
the
couple
continued
to
remotely
work
“in
close
quarters,”
according
to
the
SEC,
noting
that
their
home
offices
were
within
“20
feet
of
each
other.”
The
SEC
said
that
Loudon’s
wife
acknowledged
occasionally
discussing
the
acquisition
with
her
husband
in
“normal”
married-couple
types
of
conversations.
But
over
the
next
few
months,
Loudon,
without
telling
his
wife,
accumulated
46,450
shares
of
TravelCenters,
according
to
the
U.S.
attorney’s
office.
To
buy
the
TravelCenters
shares,
the
SEC
noted,
Loudon
sold
all
the
positions
in
his
brokerage
account
and
Roth
IRA,
along
with
other
equities,
all
amounting
to
over
$2
million.
On
Feb.
16,
2023,
when
TravelCenters
announced
the
BP
acquisition,
triggering
its
71%
stock
jump,
Loudon
sold
all
of
his
shares
of
the
company,
profiting
$1.76
million,
according
to
the
U.S.
attorney’s
office.
But
in
March,
the
Financial
Industry
Regulatory
Authority
requested
from
BP
a
list
of
people
who
were
“in
the
know”
about
the
TravelCenters
acquisition
before
it
happened.
A
former
BP
employee
who
had
worked
on
the
acquisition
then
contacted
Loudon’s
wife,
complaining
about
having
to
disclose
her
address
and
other
personal
details
to
comply
with
FINRA.
When
Loudon’s
wife
told
him
about
this
conversation
with
the
former
employee,
he
asked
her
“if
current
employees
would
receive
the
same
scrutiny,”
the
SEC
complaint
detailed.
“Loudon’s
wife
responded
that
they
would.”
A
week
later,
Loudon
admitted
to
his
wife
that
he
had
illegally
traded
the
TravelCenter
shares
“to
make
enough
money
so
that
she
did
not
have
to
work
long
hours
anymore,”
according
to
the
SEC.
Loudon’s
wife
reported
her
husband’s
insider
trading
to
her
BP
supervisor
but
she
was
later
fired
from
the
company.
She
filed
to
divorce
Loudon
in
June,
according
to
the
SEC
complaint.
