In February 2023, two cousins pleaded guilty to insider trading after being charged with using confidential information about Eastman Kodak Co. to make over $1 million in illegal profits. The hearing took place in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where the securities fraud case was filed against James A. “Andrew” Stiles of the Lowcountry and Edward G. “Gray” Stiles of Richmond, Va.
James Stiles, a 38-year-old executive at drug manufacturer Phlow Corp., was working on a pandemic-era project with Eastman Kodak when he misappropriated information related to potential government loans for Eastman Kodak Company to finance the production of Covid-19-related pharmaceutical components. The scheme began almost four years ago when Stiles shared confidential information about the financing with his 39-year-old Virginia cousin, Edward Stiles.
Edward Stiles asked for an update on July 9, 2020, in a coded text message regarding the film they sent off a few weeks prior to get developed. They bought approximately 130,000 shares of Eastman Kodak between June 2020 and the day the financing letter was announced, selling all of the stock shortly after and making a total of $1.2 million from the trades.
