Rovi Corp. VP Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading

A Bay Area executive at a digital entertainment company pleaded guilty Tuesday to feeding confidential information about the company to an associate in an insider-trading scheme, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Los Altos resident Christian Keller, 41, and his associate, Irvine resident John Gray, 39, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of securities fraud in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Keller was vice president of corporate finance and investor relations for Santa Clara-based Rovi Corporation, which provides metadata on entertainment programming.

Between 2009 and 2012, he provided Gray with information about the company’s performance and revenue estimates that he and others used to trade securities, prosecutors said.

For his help, Gray paid Keller $46,000 in cash, prosecutors said.

They were each charged in September with the conspiracy and securities fraud counts and are scheduled for sentencing in April, where they could face up to 20 years in prison for the securities fraud charge.

Keller’s sentencing is scheduled for April 19 and Gray’s is scheduled for April 5.

--Bay City News Service, photo via Shutterstock