U.S. SEC Loses Insider Trading Case Against Hedge Fund Manager

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suffered a loss on Friday in a long-running case against a New York hedge fund manager and two others accused of engaging in a $1.3 million insider trading scheme.

A federal jury in Manhattan found Nelson Obus, a fund manager at Wynnefield Capital Inc, not liable on an SEC claim he traded on inside information about a 2001 takeover of industrial products supplier SunSource Inc.

The jury also found Peter Black, a Wynnefield analyst, and Thomas Strickland, a former employee at General Electric Co's GE Capital who worked on the deal, not liable on insider trading charges.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)