Cedric Canas Maillard and Julio Marin Ugedo charged for BHP Billiton insider trading The US SEC has charged two men for insider tarding relating to BHP Billiton's failed bid for Potash Corp. Source: AFP AMERICA'S financial watchdog has charged a banking official and a former judge with insider trading involving a BHP Billiton's takeover bid. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleges Cedric Canas Maillard, who served as an executive adviser to the chief executive of Spanish investment bank Banco Santander, learned of BHP Billiton's confidential 2010 proposed acquisition for Potash Corporation, one of the world's largest producers of fertiliser minerals. Madrid-based Banco Santander had been asked by BHP Billiton to advise and help underwrite the potential $US38.6 billion takeover play by BHP Billiton for Canada's Potash Corporation. Canas allegedly tipped his friend Julio Marin Ugedo, a former judge in Spain, about BHP Billiton's plan and advised him to purchase Potash stock. In the days leading up to a public announcement of BHP's bid, Canas purchased Potash contracts-for-difference (CFDs). CFDs are highly leveraged securities not traded in the US but based on the price of US exchange-listed Potash stock. The SEC alleges Canas purchased 30,000 Potash CFDs and sold them following BHP's public announcement for a profit of $US917,239 ($1 million). Marin pocketed $US43,566 in profits in just one week, according to the SEC. "Canas used his position as an insider at an investment bank to trade CFDs based on confidential information about BHP's acquisition of Potash," Daniel Hawke, chief of the SEC's market abuse unit, said. To those who think they can mask their insider trading by trading CFDs rather than the underlying equity security, this case demonstrates our resolve to detect such trading and hold them accountable for violating the federal securities laws. The case has been filed in the US District Court in New York.