Judge denies Susquehanna’s request to freeze accounts in insider trading suit

Susquehanna International Group just lost a key battle in its fight to recover tens of millions of dollars it says it lost to insider trading. A federal judge in the Southern District of New York declined to freeze the accounts of unidentified defendants who allegedly used advance knowledge of a Chinese government crackdown to score a 900%-plus return on short-dated put options. The ruling, issued on August 26 by Judge Arun Subramanian, effectively means that the proceeds from the alleged scheme could start moving again. Susquehanna claims roughly $70 million in losses as the counterparty to those trades. The trade that raised every red flag On May 22, the Chinese government announced a crackdown on unlicensed brokerages, a move that sent shares of US-listed Chinese fintech platforms FUTU Holdings and UP Fintech (ticker: TIGR) tumbling. In the days leading up to that announcement, unknown traders acquired more than 200,000 short-dated put options on those two stocks. These traders turned approximately $12 million in options purchases into profits exceeding $100 million. Susquehanna Securities and Susquehanna Investment Group filed their lawsuit on June 29 in the Southern District o...