Former SeaWorld lawyer pleads guilty to insider trading
SeaWorld Entertainment’s former associate general counsel, who was fired last October, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of insider training that allowed him to make nearly $65,000 from a stock sale last year.
Paul B. Powers, 60, who also held the title of assistant secretary with the Orlando-based theme park company, entered his plea before a U.S. District judge in Florida. Sentencing has not yet been determined.
On the same day that the Department of Justice announced the guilty plea, the Securities and Exchange Commission said that it had also charged Powers with insider trading based on confidential information he received that SeaWorld’s revenue would be better than anticipated for the second quarter of 2018.
SeaWorld, which for years had been suffering from a steady decline in revenue and attendance, reported last August that attendance jumped nearly 5 percent in the second quarter, with 290,000 more guests visiting SeaWorld’s 12 parks than in the same quarter in 2017. The numbers were even better for the first half, with total visitation surging by 8 percent.
Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/story/2019-04-09/former-seaworld-lawyer-pleads-guilty-to-insider-trading