SEATTLE (AP) – A former information technology worker at Expedia Inc. pleaded guilty Monday to securities fraud after authorities said he used his access to the computers of top executives to rummage through their email, then made lucrative, illegal stock trades based on the inside information he discovered.
Prosecutors said Jonathan Ly, 28, of San Francisco made more than $330,000 from trades done with the information from 2013 to 2015.
“I deeply regret what happened in the last couple of years,” Ly, choking up, told The Associated Press after the hearing. “It was a huge mistake on my part.”
Ly pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud in U.S. District Court in Seattle and is expected to face a potential sentence of about two years. He has agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $376,000 and to reimburse Expedia $81,000 for costs associated with the investigation.
Ly worked for the Bellevue, Washington-based online travel giant but was based in the San Francisco office of one of its brands, Hotwire.com. Prosecutors said he was given the passwords and network credentials of company employees so he could remotely access their computers to address technology issues.