SEC sues ex-broker for insider trading ahead of Burger King deal

WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators on Thursday sued a former stockbroker who worked for Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, accusing him of insider trading ahead of a Burger King deal.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it obtained a court order freezing the assets of the broker, Waldyr Da Silva Prado Neto, who had allegedly put his Miami home up for sale and begun transferring his assets out of the country.

Prado worked for Wells Fargo in Miami when he learned from a brokerage customer that Burger King would be acquired by private equity firm 3G Capital Partners Ltd, the SEC said.

Prado used the information to net $175,000 in illicit profits by trading in the stock, the SEC said.

Prado also tipped off others about the acquisition, the SEC said.

In May 2010, for example, he emailed a customer and said in Portuguese, "  if you are around call me at the hotel  I have some info  You have to hear this," according to SEC documents.

The two spoke by phone and the customer purchased out-of-the-money Burger King call options during the next two days, the SEC said.

"Prado's emails and other communications may have been sent from Brazil and written in Portuguese, but our commitment to prosecute illegal insider trading on U.S. markets knows no geographic or language barrier," said Sanjay Wadhwa, deputy chief of the SEC enforcement division's market abuse unit.

A lawyer for Prado could not immediately be reached for comment.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said his employment with the company had been terminated. Representatives of Wells Fargo and Burger King either had no immediate comment or did not immediately respond to a request for comment.