Sentencing Due for Ex-Accountant at Pasadena Company in Insider Trading Case

A former employee of a Pasadena business is expected to be sentenced Friday for using non-public information to make nearly $500,000 by selling shares in the company after news of a forthcoming acquisition became public.

Marco Antonio “Marc” Perez, 59, of Glendora, pleaded guilty in October in downtown Los Angeles to one federal count of insider trading, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

General Finance Corp., a Pasadena-based storage and modular space company, employed Perez as an accounting manager who reported to the company’s chief financial officer. He also performed assignments for the company’s chairman, including printing out the chairman’s emails, prosecutors said.

As a result, Perez had access to material information belonging to General Finance, including offers to buy the company, before the information was released to the investing public, evidence shows.

In violation of his fiduciary duties to General Finance and its shareholders, and in violation of company policy against insider trading, in March and April of 2021, Perez purchased a total of 66,585 shares of General Finance stock that he was later able to sell for a total of $1.26 million, according to prosecutors.

Perez purchased the General Finance stock after reading confidential emails sent to the company’s chairman in early 2021 that concerned the pending sale of General Finance for a price in the range of $19 to $20 per share. Perez paid prices between $10 and $12 for the 66,585 shares he bought, the DOJ said.

General Finance was ultimately sold to the Stamford, Connecticut-based United Rentals Inc. On April 15, 2021, United Rentals issued a news release announcing that it was acquiring General Finance for $19 per share. Prior to this announcement, General Finance’s share price closed that day at $12.17. The day after United Rentals’ announcement, the price of General Finance shares surged from $12.17 — the closing price before the announcement — to $19 per share, court papers show.

Within two weeks of the announcement, Perez sold all 66,585 shares he had purchased on inside information, netting a profit of about $488,533, according to his plea deal.

Perez also admitted to tipping off two others about the impending sale of General Finance, which also violated General Finance’s policy against insider trading. The DOJ said both individuals acted on Perez’s inside information and made profits of $127,140 and $34,867, respectively.

In September, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it charged Perez and two of his siblings with insider trading.