Three charged with insider trading on Long Island Iced Tea's pivot to blockchain

G0d4ather/iStock via Getty Images Three individuals were charged by the Securities and Exchange for insider trading ahead of Long Island Iced Tea's announcement that the company was planning to pivot from beverages to blockchain, a move that caused the company's stock to soar in December 2017. According to the complaint, Eric Watson, an undisclosed control person of Long Blockchain who helped engineer the business change within the company and signed a confidentiality agreement not disclose the plans, told his friend and broker, Oliver Barret-Lindsay, about the strategy change and shared the company's press release with him. Barrett-Lindsay then passed on the information to his friend Gannon Giguire who bought 35K shares of Long Blockchain stock within hours of receiving the information. After the press release was issued, the stock surged more than four-fold in intraday trading, and Giguiere sold his shares for more than $160K in profits, the SEC said. The