TORONTO - The Ontario Securities Commission approved an insider trading settlement Friday with a former analyst at BMO Nesbitt Burns who bought shares of five companies he knew were in the midst of takeover deals. Ming Chao Zhao, also known as Michael Zhao, was ordered to pay a $750,000 administrative penalty, $30,000 in costs and return $416,719 of profits. "Our insider trading and market abuse team is establishing momentum in detecting and pursuing cases of illegal insider trading," said Tom Atkinson, director of enforcement at the Ontario Securities Commission.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The co-founder of a Connecticut hedge fund has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in connection with insider trading that authorities say brought in nearly $70 million in illegal profit to his firm. Anthony Chiasson, of Manhattan, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan. The 39-year-old Chiasson was convicted in December of five counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

By Bernard Vaughan NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge has set November 18 for the start of the criminal trial of Michael Steinberg, the most senior employee of Steven A. Cohen's hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors to be indicted for insider trading. U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan also declined to allow Steinberg's case to be randomly assigned to another judge.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The owner of a San Fernando Valley jewelry store has reached a plea agreement for his role in an insider-trading case involving a senior partner with KPMG LLP. The Department of Justice says that Bryan Shaw was charged Monday with one count of conspiracy for using insider information about KPMG's clients to make illegal stock trades that led to more than $1 million in profits.