Former Biogen general counsel to pay $3m to settle SEC investigation

The Securities and Exchange Commission said today it has filed a settlement enforcement action today in US District Court with Thomas J. Bucknum, former general counsel of Biogen Idec over insider trading charges.

Under the agreement, Bucknum would pay $3 million in disgorgement, interest, and penalties and be prohibited from serving as an officer or a director of a public company for a period of five years, the SEC said.

Under the agreement, Bucknum would neither admit nor deny wrongdoing.

Bucknum sold 89,700 shares of Biogen Idec stock on Feb. 18, the day company executives learned that two patients in a long term trial of its multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri had a rare disease.

On Feb. 28, the company disclosed that it was suspending sales of Tysabri after one patient died. Biogen's stock plunged more than 40 percent on the news.

"A key responsibility of a general counsel is to protect from fraud," said Walter G. Ricciardi, deputy director of the SEC's enforcement division and the district administrator of the SEC's Boston office. "Yet on the afternoon of Feb. 18, 2005, Mr. Bucknum chose to dump his stock on unsuspecting shareholders after he heard about tragic developments related to the company's key drug."