Former Prime Cable Partners Inc. chief Robert Hughes was one of four people who have settled insider-trading charges related to Univision Communications Inc.’s takeover of Hispanic Broadcasting Corp.
Until recently, Hughes was a board member of Spanish radio group HBC.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Hughes learned May 14, 2002, that Univision was planning to acquire HBC. Hughes directed his assistant to start buying HBC shares and acquired 12,000 shares in six transactions over the next three weeks for around $24 per share. On June 12, the deal was announced, and HBC shares rose to $26.
The SEC said Hughes agreed to disgorge $13,060 in profits, plus pay a $13,060 penalty. He is also barred from acting as an officer or director for any publicly held company.
Hughes was chairman of Prime Management Group, an Austin, Texas-based group that controlled top 20 MSO Prime Cable during the 1980s and 1990s. Prime owned systems in Las Vegas, Chicago and suburban Washington, D.C.
