Fund manager fingered as Marvel insider trader

…And another one bites the dust. Reuters reports that U.S. securities regulators have charged a California man with insider trading for buying speculative call options on Marvel Entertainment after learning that Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) planned to acquire the comic-book superhero company.

Toby Scammell, 26, is alleged to have bought Marvel call options in August 2009 after learning about the planned acquisition from his girlfriend of two years, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed in a California federal court. Scammell's girlfriend worked on the Marvel acquisition as a six-month temporary employee in Disney's corporate strategy department and knew the details about the pricing and timing of the deal, the SEC said.

Scammell secretly used the money in his older brother's accounts, which he had gained control over when his brother was deployed with the U.S. Army to Iraq in 2007, the agency said. Just before he bought the Marvel options, Scammell searched the Internet for terms like "insider trading" and "material, non-public information," the SEC complaint said...

Read more at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/sec-disney-idUSN1E77A1Q420110811