The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against three Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) software engineers and fam
In the lawsuit, the SEC alleged that Twilio software engineers Hari Sure, Lokesh Lagudu, and Chotu Pulagam had access to different databases relevant to the company’s reporting of revenue.
These Twilio software engineers allegedly obtained the company’s material non-public financial information. They then shared that information through a private chat group with certain family members namely Dileep Kamujula, Sai Nekkalapudi, Abhishek Dharmapurikar, and Chetan Prabhu Karteek Pulagam, who were also included in the SEC complaint.
The defendants started their insider trading scheme in or around March 2020 when the use of cloud tools was soaring as remote work was also rising due to the pandemic. Based on the confidential data, the defendants concluded that Twilio’s stock price would “rise for sure” after the company’s announcement of its quarterly earnings report. They traded Twilio options and stock before the company publicly announced its quarterly financial performance on May 6, 2020.
