Former major league ballplayer Doug DeCinces has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a civil claim of insider trading, U.S. regulators say. DeCinces, 60, who heads a real estate firm in California, did not admit wrongdoing, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. The SEC alleges DeCinces profited in the amount of $1.3 million from advance word on Abbott Laboratories' takeover of Advanced Medical Optics and passed the information on to three friends.
After buying large quantities of Advanced Medical Optics, in some cases using accounts in his grandchildren's names, DeCinces sold the stock the day the acquisition was announced. Advanced Medical Optics' stock price more than doubled that day.
Other defendants in the case have also settled, the SEC said.
DeCinces, a third baseman, played for the Baltimore Orioles from 1973 to 1982, when he was traded to the California Angels. He retired in 1987 after playing briefly for the St. Louis Cardinals.
