It Is Unclear Whether He Still Works As A VP Of Quality At Amgen, But Is That An “Officer” Level Title, There?

I post this here, from another property, to ask why it is that the minnows get three year bans, but the whales — like Musk — remain as D&O of public companies, even after very solid evidence of insider trading in several Howey-type securities. That is a vexing difficulty of limited enforcement budgets, but old Elon should see the same rigor applied, given his outsized impact on the Doge coin markets, for example.

In any event, on the main topic, I do ask, mostly because his settled charges at the SEC forbid him from being an officer of a ’34 Act reporting public company, for the next three years.

And obviously, Amgen is a ’34 Act public company. In any event, here is the latest — from the fine reporting at Fierce:

…Nirdosh Jagota, 61, who was a vice president of global regulatory affairs at Merck when the Pandion buyout was announced, has agreed to a deal with the SEC. Jagota will return the $39,660 he made from the two stock purchases he made on Feb. 9 and Feb. 17, ahead of the Feb. 25 merger.

Jagota, who left Merck in August of 2021 and has since held positions at three other biopharma companies, also will pay a civil penalty of $39,660 and prejudgment interest of $3,605. He also has agreed to not serve as an officer or director of a public company for three years. Jagota has been Amgen’s VP of quality for the last 13 months….

I would imagine that the role at Amgen — though called VP of Quality — is not an actual Section 16 officer slot, at least not as appointed by the full Amgen board of elected directors.

But we will know, soon enough. [Interestingly, the SEC settlement is not limited to being a Section 16 “executive” officer (see page 4, at IV.B) — it says any officer position. Hmm….] Onward, smiling on a sunny Thursday… with a probable indie documentary shoot coming up next week, on Wednesday here. Heh.

नमस्ते