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Peizer falsely certified in both 10b5-1 trading plans he had no material, nonpublic information, jurors were told, and also refused to utilize a "cooling-off period" — which is a specified time frame in which an executive waits a certain number of days to set up a plan to start trading — as he knew Cigna could end its deal with Ontrak at any time.

Sentilles promised that jurors would hear from former Ontrak employees who will testify that Cigna had problems with Ontrak, and that Cigna started cutting down the number of its members, from several thousands per month to approximately 50 per month, at the time things only got worse from there.

Peizer knew what was going on, grew desperate, and sent text messages to colleagues that showed he was "fixated on Cigna," and described the situation as "a nightmare" closely resembling the situation involving Aetna, Sentilles said.

Peizer's attorney, David K. Willingham of King & Spalding LLP, urged jurors to consider all sides of the story to understand that, contrary to the government's contentions, his client had already expressed his intent in January 2021 to sell stock warrants that were about to expire that year, long before Cigna aired any issues with Ontrak.

At that time, Peizer owned over nine million shares of Ontrak common stock and over a million in stock warrants set to expire, jurors heard. His motives for wanting to exercise those warrants had nothing to do with Cigna, as Peizer simply wanted to buy a home in Puerto Rico and pay off loans, Willingham said.

But executives cannot exercise warrants and quickly sell, as they must wait for the company to open the trading window, which is exactly what Peizer did, jurors heard.

"'Yes, we want to know the legal guardrails,'" jurors saw in a text message that Peizer sent to company colleagues on Jan. 26, 2021. That demonstrated Peizer "wanted to get it right" and follow all trading rules, Willingham explained.

Peizer acted in good faith when setting up his Rule 10b5-1 trading plans and did so believing Cigna was going to renegotiate its deal with Ontrak, not that it would terminate it, jurors heard. His trading plans also needed pre-approval from Ontrak's insider trading compliance officer, Brandon LaVerne, who ultimately concluded that the plan wasn't established using insider information. LaVerne had a crucial role in approving such trading plans, and took his compliance duties seriously, Willingham said.

Furthermore, Peizer waited to enter into his trading plans after Ontrak submitted quarterly earnings reports in May 2021 and August 2021 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which disclosed potential material, nonpublic information about Ontrak's relationship with Cigna, jurors heard.