Litigation Releases (Robert Del Prete)

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 26073 / August 13, 2024

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Robert Del Prete., No. 23-CV-20452 (MAS) (DEA) (D.N.J. filed Sept. 18, 2023)

SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Former SPAC Accounting Consultant Charged with Insider Trading

On August 9, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey entered a final consent judgment against Robert Del Prete. The SEC had charged Del Prete with insider trading when he purchased shares of HighCape Capital Acquisition Corp. ("HighCape"), a special purpose acquisition company, in advance of the company's announcement that it would merge with Quantum-Si Incorporated ("QSI").

The SEC's complaint, filed on September 18, 2023, alleged that Del Prete, an accounting consultant to HighCape, was present at HighCape's board meetings on January 27 and February 17, 2021, at which the planned merger with QSI was discussed. As alleged in the complaint, Del Prete, who had agreed to keep HighCape's proprietary information confidential, bought shares of HighCape on February 17, 2021, less than an hour after attending the board meeting that day. The complaint further alleged that, within hours of HighCape's February 18, 2021, press release announcing the deal, Del Prete liquidated his position, realizing an approximate one-hundred percent profit of $60,170 from his illegal trading.

The final judgment enjoins Del Prete from violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, bars him from acting as an officer or director of a publicly traded company, and orders him to pay disgorgement in the amount of $60,170, plus prejudgment interest of $7,012, for a total of $67,182, which shall be deemed satisfied by the forfeiture order entered against Del Prete in the parallel criminal case, United States v. Del Prete, No. 23-cr-745 (ZNQ) (D.N.J. filed Sept. 18, 2023). On April 2, 2024, the court in the criminal case sentenced Del Prete to one year probation, including three months of home detention with location monitoring, and ordered him to pay a $30,000 fine.

The SEC's litigation was led by Ibrahim Sajalieu Bah and Paul Gizzi of the New York Regional Office and was supervised by Celeste Chase and Thomas P. Smith, Jr.