BOSTON — A Cape Cod investor who once led multiple companies including Trillium Capital, Stream Global Services and 3Com was sentenced to federal prison on Tuesday for a scheme to artificially inflate the trading price of Getty Images and trying to cover it up, the U.S. Attorney said.
Robert Scott Murray, 61, of Mashpee, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper to 10 months in prison and two years of supervised release, after pleading guilty in June to one count of securities fraud, Acting U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said in a statement.
Murray was also ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $227,543.
Murray, a longtime investor, previously worked as CEO of multiple public companies based in the Boston area, including Stream Global Services, 3Com, Modus Media, and The Learning Company, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office and biographical information on the Trillium Capital website. His other companies include Zigby Communications, an e-commerce platform, and Global BPO Corp., a $250 million blank check company.
In 2023, Murray was the owner and manager of Trillium Capital LLC, a venture investment company located in Massachusetts, Levy said.
Between October 2022 and April 2023, Murray bought approximately 300,000 shares, as well as other options contracts, for shares in Getty Images, a visual media company publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GETY.
Murray then attempted to use Trillium Capital to pressure Getty Images to change its business strategy and to add Murray to Getty Images’ board of directors, Levy said.
When those efforts failed, Murray used Trillium Capital to “launch a fake takeover bid of Getty Images for the purposes of driving up the trading price of Getty Images’ stock so that Murray could sell the shares he owned at the artificially inflated price,” the U.S. Attorney’s statement said.
On Friday, April 21, 2023, GETY shares closed at a trading price of $5.06 per share.
On Monday, April 24, 2023, prior to the market opening, Murray caused the publication of a press release in which Trillium Capital made a proposal to acquire Getty Images for “$10 per share.”
When the market opened, GETY shares traded at $7.88 per share, nearly 56 percent above the prior closing price, prosecutors said. Murray then sold all the GETY shares he owned within less than one hour for approximately $1,486,467.
Through this scheme, prosecutors said Murray was able to sell the GETY shares he owned for $227,543 above the fair market price of those shares.
Murray then attempted conceal the scheme by making public false statements and obstructing the investigation, prosecutors said.
On April 24, after selling his shares, Murray interviewed with news outlets where “he continued to portray the fake offer by Trillium Capital to purchase a controlling stake in Getty Images as ‘genuine,’” the U.S. Attorney’s statement said.
Murray also privately directed an acquaintance to obstruct the investigation by destroying evidence and making false statements in response to a subpoena, prosecutors said.
For example, Murray instructed the acquaintance to delete Murray’s text messages and stated that the texts were “like virginity, once you delete your virginity you ain’t getting it back,” the U.S. Attorney’s statement said.
Murray later lied to federal agents about his communications with the acquaintance, prosecutors said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against Murray alleging violations of the securities laws.
According to biographical information provided on the Trillium Capital website, Murray “is an entrepreneurial executive and has been a multiple times CEO of networking, technology, and tech-enabled services companies as well as CFO of The Learning Company over the past 25 years.”
“He is a member of Converge Venture Partners and has directly invested in a number of media, mobility and e-commerce venture companies,” the website states. “He has also advised private equity firms on transactions in the software, speech translation and technology-enabled service providers.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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