Handojo settles insider trading charges in U.S.

Handojo settles insider trading charges in U.S.

WASHINGTON (Bloomberg): A former J.P. Morgan & Co visiting
analyst agreed to surrender US$588,766 to settle U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission charges that he traded on inside
information about NationsBank Corp's acquisition of Barnett Banks
Inc and other bank mergers.

Roy Handojo, an Indonesian who was working in New York as an
analyst trainee, is serving a 15-month prison sentence after
pleading guilty last November to similar criminal charges.

The allegations by both the SEC and federal prosecutors
involve four banking company mergers in which J.P. Morgan was
involved as an adviser.

The SEC, in a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York last
September, alleged Handojo used inside information to buy
securities of Signet Banking Corp, ACC Consumer Financial Corp,
Barnett Banks Inc and Great Financial Corp. Handojo, then 25,
bought the securities days before the companies announced merger
agreements between July and September 1997, the suit contended.

Handojo neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in settling the
SEC case, and his attorney could not be reached for comment. He
initially denied the allegations, telling investigators that he
traded on published rumors, and noticed price and volume
increases in the bank stocks he purchased. Handojo made $665,000,
including interest, on the trades, but the SEC said it lowered
the amount it required him to surrender because of his inability
to pay.

J.P. Morgan was an adviser on the transactions between Signet
and First Union Corp, ACC and Household International Inc, and
Barnett and NationsBank. The brokerage also advised an unnamed
company that unsuccessfully competed with Star Banc Corp to
acquire Great Financial, the SEC alleged.