Apr 14 2016 | 12:31am ET The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed insider trading charges against a New York research analyst who allegedly made approximately $1.5 million in February through trades related to Apollo Global Management’s $7 billion deal to buy ADT Corporation. John Afriyie was charged in a criminal complaint for allegedly trading on confidential details about the deal while working at an unnamed investment fund, which was approached about potentially providing debt financing for a public-to-private deal, according to court documents. According to the complaint, following Apollo’s meeting and internal indications that the investment manager had reached a deal with Apollo regarding an unnamed provider of alarm monitoring services, Afriyie subsequently accessed several confidential, deal-related documents on the firm’s network, and purchased thousands of out-of-the-money ADT call options though his mother’s brokerage account between January 28 to February 12. The ADT transaction was publicly announced on February 16. Afriyie allegedly sold all of the ADT call options in the account shortly thereafter, booking more than $1.5 million in gains on the trade once the deal was announced, the SEC said. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced criminal charges against Afriyie, the SEC statement said. Afriyie has been released on a $200,000 bond. from FINALTERNATIVES