Ex-CEO Faces Third Trial Over Insider Tip to Ex-Orioles Fielder

(Bloomberg) -- Despite two whiffs, the U.S. will get a third chance to win an insider-trading conviction against the former chief executive officer of a Southern California medical supply company.

James Mazzo, who headed Advanced Medical Optics Inc., was charged over a tip he allegedly gave almost 10 years ago to his friend, former Baltimore Orioles third baseman Doug DeCinces, about an imminent takeover by Abbott Laboratories.

A federal judge in Santa Ana, California, on Tuesday said he no choice but to deny Mazzo’s request for dismissal of the charges even though the majority of the jurors at the previous two trials thought he wasn’t guilty.

"The court wonders why neither statutory nor case law provides sufficient support for this court to determine that a 10-2 or 9-3 vote of not guilty protects defendant with a permanent not guilty verdict at this stage," U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford said in his decision.

DeCinces was found guilty of insider trading at the first trial in 2017.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg

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