AWOL Eric Watson isolated as last insider trading co-defendant settles with US regulator

Eric Watson, seen here on Instagram in Ibiza, is now facing likely default judgment in a complaint of insider trading brought by US regulators. Photo / Instagram

Eric Watson’s cat-and-mouse game with the US Securities and Exchange Commission edged further towards conclusion - and default judgment - as the last of the controversial New Zealand’s businessman’s co-defendants settled claims that they engaged in insider trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims, first filed in US courts in July 2021, concern Watson’s penny stock beverage maker Long Island Ice Tea joining the crypto bandwagon in 2017 by rebranding as Long Blockchain. The pivot, conducted at the peak of market frenzy over bitcoin, saw shares in the company nearly quadruple in value.

Watson was charged with sharing information about the forthcoming rebrand, alongside his friend and broker, Oliver Barrett-Lindsay, with Gannon Giguiere also looped in on the announcement.

Long Blockchain was subsequently delisted by the Nasdaq exchange after it was determined the company had made a “series of public statements designed to mislead investors and to take advantage of the general investor interest in bitcoin and blockchain technology”.

Watson, for his part, in multiple interviews with the Herald has defended his conduct over Long Blockchain, denied insider trading, and emphasised he did not profit from any share-trading around the crypto announcement.

He was not as open with the SEC as he was with newspapers, however, with the market regulator struggling to find Watson to serve him legal papers amidst suggestions he was hiding in either the United Kingdom or Spain.

In 2022 the SEC convinced courts to allow him to be served in absentia - with Herald reports cited as evidence Watson was aware of the case - after advertising their claims in the international edition of the New York Times.

Filings in court for the SEC said the regulator - seeking financial penalties and to bar Watson from involvement in listed vehicles in the United States - would hold off seeking default judgment against him until his co-defendants had been dealt with by the courts and the facts of the case were settled.

While Watson has not engaged with the proceedings, Lindsay settled in early 2022 - formally neither admitting nor denying the complaint, but agreeing to pay a yet-to-be determined penalty - while Giguiere initially elected to defend himself with a week-long trial tentatively set down for April.

Giguiere sought to dismiss the case, relying on arguments also used by Watson in interviews, claiming that the pair did not have a relationship and that Watson received no benefit. That motion to dismiss was denied in March.

And in a letter filed by the SEC to the court this month, it seems that Giguiere has also elected to settle. “Last week, SEC counsel and Giguiere reached a settlement, which, if authorised by the Commission and approved by this Court, will resolve the SEC’s case against Giguiere,” the filings said.

Settlement is expected to be formalised in December, clearing the way for default judgment against Watson.

Watson did not respond to Weekend Herald requests for comment this week.

This latest court setback represents a further worsening of Watson’s position as he faces legal war on multiple fronts.

The collapse of his New Zealand-based Cullen Group in 2019 - following a ruling it owed $112m over tax avoidance - has seen nearly two dozen of his companies placed in administration.

Despite a long-running circus where New Zealand liquidators claimed Watson was hiding from document-servers, liquidators earlier this year signalled an intent to bankrupt him after securing a $57m summary judgment in absentia against him personally.

And a titanic struggle with his former business partner, Sir Owen Glenn - waged in international courts for more than a decade that has burnt tens of millions in legal bills on both sides - has seen Glenn use court awards in his favour to chase Watson personally around the globe, and his family members in New Zealand and in the United States, seeking $82m.

In late 2020 lawyers acting for Glenn managed to have Watson thrown in prison - a rare outcome in a civil case - for contempt of court after finding he had hidden assets in a “rainy day account” in his mother’s name. Watson served four months in London’s Pentonville prison.