Business Briefs: Answer Financial is hiring 115

Answer Financial is hiring 115

Answer Financial Inc., one of the largest online auto and home insurance agencies in the U.S., plans to hire 115 people in East Tennessee.

A new office in Chattanooga at Eastgate Town Center will hold more than 15 sales agents in the next 90 days, the company said.

In Knoxville, its primary sales center will hire another 100 people over the next year or two.

Answer Financial will hold a job fair Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn on Shallowford Road.

SEC freezes Swiss accounts

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday received a court order freezing a Zurich, Switzerland, account on suspicions of insider trading in the takeover of H.J. Heinz.

The SEC alleges that options traders made a profit of more than $1.7 million from knowing that Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital were going to buy Heinz for $28 billion, or $72.50 a share. The SEC found suspicious the fact that defendants bought 2,533 out-of-the-money June $65 calls a day before the deal was announced, after never having traded Heinz previously in the account. The account identifies the Zurich account as being at GS & Co. -- a name Goldman Sachs Group Inc. uses for its options broker.