Insider-trading verdict, sanctions upheld A federal appeals court upheld an insider-trading verdict and $112,000 in sanctions Tuesday against a San Francisco man whose tips to friends about impending takeovers netted $375,000 in stock profits. The SEC said Gowrish passed information about three planned acquisitions in 2006 and 2007 to a friend, Adnan Zaman, who worked for the Lazard Freres investment banking group, and that Zaman relayed it to two other friends, Pascal Vaghar and Sameer Khoury, who invested in the companies. Citing testimony by Vaghar that he had paid kickbacks to Gowrish, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered Gowrish to pay the government $12,000 for his illegal profits and $100,000 in civil penalties.