SEC Probing Alleged InVision Insider Trades

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating alleged insider trading in InVision Technologies Inc.’s call options in the days before General Electric Co. agreed to buy the company for $900 million.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a temporary restraining order at the SEC’s request Tuesday, freezing $2 million of assets of “unknown purchasers” of call options on InVision shares, the SEC said.

General Electric said Monday that it would pay $50 a share for InVision, the largest maker of explosives detectors at U.S. airports. That’s 21% more than the closing price Friday for Newark, Calif.-based InVision, whose stock has surged more than 13-fold since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Tim Payne, a spokesman for InVision, declined to comment.

From Bloomberg News