SEC v. Trijya Vakil and Neeraj Visen — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Litigation Release No. 26629, dated September 4, 2026.
The SEC charged Trijya Vakil and Neeraj Visen for insider trading related to the acquisition of Kindred Biosciences. Vakil, a Senior Director at Elanco, learned of the deal during due diligence and bought Kindred stock. She then tipped off her friend Visen, who also traded on the information. Both settled with the SEC, agreeing to pay penalties and accept injunctions, and also faced parallel criminal charges.
Imagine you work for a company that's planning to buy another company. You find out about this secret plan before anyone else. You then buy stock in the company you're going to buy, hoping the price will go up when the news is announced. You also tell a friend, who also buys stock. This is illegal because you're using secret information to make money unfairly. That's what happened here, and the people involved had to pay fines and were banned from certain company roles.
Disclaimer: all facts are drawn from the SEC's own filings; the claims described are allegations unless and until a court rules or the parties settle, and some cases end in dismissal.
On September 3, 2026, the SEC filed consents and proposed final judgments as to defendants Trijya Vakil and Neeraj Visen in a previously filed action alleging trading in stock of Kindred Biosciences, Inc. based on material nonpublic information about the impending acquisition of Kindred by Vakil’s employer. Vakil, then Senior Director, Product Innovation at Elanco Animal Health, Inc., learned about the upcoming Kindred acquisition in April 2021, when she took part in Elanco’s due diligence for the transaction. Vakil purchased 500 shares of Kindred stock on the basis of material nonpublic information regarding the acquisition, and when Kindred’s stock price rose by approximately 46% following the acquisition announcement, Vakil obtained ill-gotten gains of $2,447.50. Vakil tipped her friend, Neeraj Visen, about the upcoming Kindred acquisition, including telling him on June 15, 2021 that the acquisition would be announced within a day or two. Visen then purchased 38,000 shares of Kindred stock, and when the stock price rose after the announcement, Visen obtained ill-gotten gains of $109,437. Vakil and Visen consented to the entry of final judgments, subject to court approval, that would order each of them to pay a civil penalty in the amount of $54,718. On August 6, 2025, the Court entered consent judgments that permanently enjoined each of them from violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and prohibited them from acting as officers or directors of a public company. Vakil and Visen each pleaded guilty to criminal charges in parallel actions brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Named in this action: Trijya Vakil, Neeraj Visen.