Former Angels baseball player Doug DeCinces accused of insider trading, pays $2.5-million fine

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Former Angels baseball player Doug DeCinces has agreed to pay $2.5 million in penalties and interest to settle allegations that he used inside information to make more than $1.2 million in profits trading the stock of Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc. in 2009.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement the same day that it filed a civil lawsuit detailing allegations that DeCinces, acting on an inside tip, bought more than 83,000 shares of Advanced Medical Optics in the weeks leading to its 2009 acquisition by Abbott Laboratories Inc.

Shares of the Santa Ana company increased 143% after a public announcement in January 2009 that it would be acquired by Illinois-based Abbott.

According to the SEC lawsuit, DeCinces received word of the pending acquisition from an employee of Advanced Medical Optics.

The SEC said DeCinces also illegally tipped off three associates who traded on the confidential information: physical therapist Joseph J. Donohue, real estate lawyer Fred Scott Jackson, and businessman Roger A. Wittenbach.

DeCinces, 60, of Laguna Beach, played major league baseball from 1973 to 1987. He now works as president and chief executive officer of a real estate development firm in Irvine.

DeCinces hit 237 home runs during his career in the major leagues. He played with the then-California Angels from 1982 to 1986.

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-- Stuart Pfeifer