FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 24, 2010 (FreePRCenter.com) New York, NY – The FBI arrested a Disney employee and her boyfriend Wednesday on charges that the couple tried to sell inside information about the company to hedge funds, federal regulators said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Bonnie Jean Hoxie and her boyfriend, Yonni Sebbag, for offering a total of 20 hedge funds early access to Disney’s second-quarter financial results in a “brazen scheme” to profit from inside information.

Hoxie, an administrative assistant to a high-level Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) executive, obtained confidential information concerning the company’s quarterly earnings and provided it to Sebbag in early May, the SEC said.

Sebbag subsequently sold the information to an FBI agent posing as an investment manager. In one case, he was promised half the expected trading profits, and in another he was paid $15,000 in cash.

“Hoxie and Sebbag stole Disney’s confidential pre-release earnings information and put it up for sale,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, adding that many of the hedge funds the pair contacted had come forward to expose the scheme.

In its complaint, the SEC released excerpts from e-mail messages Sebbag sent to FBI agents posing as hedge fund managers, which indicated that he wanted to establish a long-term relationship, and that he wanted to be compensated for sharing confidential information.

“I can deliver 3 to 4 days before release,” Sebbag said, according to one e-mail. “I will email you the report as soon as i have it and you will wire transfer the money to my account after you get ahold of it.”

Sebbag wanted to “build a strong business relationship” that would involve sharing inside information concerning future quarter, according to the e-mails in the SEC’s complaint. He also requested help setting up an off-shore account to help launder the ill-gotten gains.

“I dont think we will get caught if we stay discrete and careful. You can count on my discretion as i am counting on yours,” he said.

A Disney spokesperson was not immediately available to comment for this story.