A Thailand based trader would pay USD5.2 million settlement after he had traded on nonpublic information ahead of the public announcement for the Smithfield Food Corp and Shuanghui International Holdings acquisition deal. This was according to US regulators who said that the Thai trader needed to settle civil charges pressed against him.

The settlement with Badin Rungruangnavarat had been approved said the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The approval was issued by US District Judge Matthew Kennelly for the Northern District in Illinois.

Badin did not admit or denied the charges filed. His attorney could not be reached to give statements regarding the settlement.

The settlement for the civil charges came after the US SEC got an asset freeze on his brokerage account last June. The asset freeze was due to the concerns that Badin reaped more than USD3 million in illegal profits. This was after he traded Smithfield out-of-the-money call options and single stock futures prior to the announced plan of Shuanghui to purchase the pork producer.