Secretary to top Disney executive arrested

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Walt Disney Co. was rocked Wednesday by the arrest of an aide to a top executive there on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

Bonnie Jean Hoxie, a secretary for Zenia Mucha, corporate spokeswoman for Disney, was arrested along with her boyfriend Yonni Sebbag. According to the Justice Department, the pair sent anonymous letters to some two dozen hedge funds promising dirt about Disney’s earnings.

Hoxie’s father, Patrick Hoxie, said he received a call from his son, saying that she had been charged with securities fraud. He said his daughter has never been in trouble with the law before.

“I don’t think she’s even gotten a speeding ticket,” he said. “It’s just totally out of character for her and it shocks me.”

The elder Hoxie said his daughter lives modestly, and he struggled to explain what may have motivated her to participate in the alleged scheme.

“It can’t be for financial reasons that I could understand. It’s got to be, for lack of a better word, for love or a relationship with this guy,” said Hoxie, contacted in Jackson, Mich. “She lives in a dinky apartment, drives an old car. She has a real basic lifestyle.” He added that his daughter has lived in Los Angeles for about a decade, working in restaurants. He described her administrative work at Disney as the best job she had had.

“She loved her job. She liked the people she worked for. That’s all she talked about,” said Patrick Hoxie. “It was a good position. It just makes me sick.”
-- Walter Hamilton and Dawn C. Chmielewski

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Disney employee and boyfriend arrested in alleged insider trading scheme