US regulators charged two Swedish citizens with insider trading of Bermuda-based Sea Containers securities, according to Bloomberg business news service.

The trading is alleged to have occurred before the shipping company received a takeover bid in 1989.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Mr. Stefan Hislop, then a foreign exchange trader in the finance department of Stena Finans AB of Sweden, and Mr. Erik Hylander, then a foreign currency broker at Sea Containers' bank, Svenska Handelsbanken of Sweden.

Sea Containers received a joint takeover bid from Swedish ferry operator Stena Finans and UK container rental company Tiphook plc on May 26, 1989.

The SEC suit alleged that Mr. Hislop learned of the bid through his employment at privately-held Stena and then colluded with Mr. Hylander to buy call options for Sea Container stock on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

The pair made more than $920,000 in illegal trading profits by buying the options before the joint bid was announced, the SEC alleged in its suit, filed Monday in Manhattan federal court.

Attorneys for Mr. Hislop and Mr. Hylander could not be reached for comment, Bloomberg said.

The charges were filed in the US because the trades were executed there, said SEC northeast regional office head Mr. Richard Walker.

"It demonstrates our commitment to protecting United States markets from wrongdoing from within and outside our borders,'' Mr. Walker said.

The agency is seeking the return of allegedly illegal trading profits plus penalties.

The companies were not named in the suit.

Mr. Hislop and Mr. Hylander were previously convicted of tax evasion in Sweden for failing to report their Sea Containers trading profits to Swedish regulators, the SEC said.