$384G to be paid for inside trade over W. Chester firm

A retired California podiatrist agreed to pay $384,095 to settle insider trading charges involving a company in West Chester, the Philadelphia office of the Securities and Exchange Commission said today.

Burr B. McKeehan, of Monarch Beach, Calif., allegedly received a tip in December 2005 that Animas Corp. was going to be sold to Johnson & Johnson.

The SEC said McKeehan received the inside information from Joseph A. Fontanetta, of Paramus, N.J.

Fontanetta, the chief executive and board member of a privately held medical-instrument company, heard of the pending Animas deal through one of his board members, who was married to an executive at Animas, the SEC said.

In early 2005, McKeehan had invested about $100,000 in Fontanetta's company.

The complaint said McKeehan purchased 30,000 shares in Animas, which makes products for diabetes patients, in the two days before the sale was announced, generating $183,018 in profits. His penalties include the forfeit of those profits, a civil penalty of the same amount, and $18,059 in prejudgment interest.

The case against Fontanetta is pending in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.