How many guys reading this ever do? Well, here’s one fellow who should have:

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday it filed securities fraud charges against the husband of a top Amgen exec, accusing the man of insider trading in the stock of another company, Abgenix.

The SEC complaint alleges Gary Melton misappropriated confidential info from his wife, Amgen’s vice president of strategic sourcing and procurement, when he bought stock days before Amgen’s acquisition of Abgenix was made public. The SEC didn’t name Melton’s wife, Farryn Melton. Amgen tipped off the SEC, prompting the investigation.

According to the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Gary Melton first told his wife in November 2005 that he might buy some Abgenix stock after seeing positive results from a study of an antibody jointly developed by Amgen and Abgenix. His wife said nothing, the SEC said.

A month later, having learned Amgen was preparing to announce its acquisition of Abgenix, the Amgen exec warned her husband not to buy any Abgenix stock, careful not to specify why, the SEC said. But he wouldn’t listen and bought 2,050 shares of Abgenix between Dec. 8 and Dec. 13, 2005, the SEC said.The next day, Amgen announced it agreed to buy Abgenix for $22.50 per share, a 54 percent premium on Abgenix’s closing stock price that day.

Gary Melton, 54, reaped $15,252 from his trades, the SEC said, and agreed to pay about $31,000 to settle the fraud charges, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, the SEC said. His attorney, Andrew Holmes,says his client was happy the case was over and stressed that his client’s wife never gave him any information.

“This was him doing something he shouldn’t have done, actually directly against her instructions,” says Holmes, adding that his client did not admit or deny the SEC allegation that he misappropriated information from his wife. “It was certainly not her idea to do this.”

Source: Associated Press[tags]Amgen, Farryn Melton[/tags]