WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP's former managing partner in Washington will pay $41,000 to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission claims he used inside information about a JPMorgan Chase & Co. acquisition to make illegal trades. David A. Schwinger learned of a pending take-over from a job applicant in 2005 and made more than $13,000 by buying Vastera Inc. stock two months before the deal became public, the SEC said yesterday in a lawsuit filed in US District Court in Washington. Schwinger agreed to forfeit the gains, plus interest, and pay a $26,054 fine to settle the case, the agency said.US regulators are cracking down on insider trading before mergers and acquisitions, as the value of takeovers this year may surpass last year's record of $3.49 trillion. Since January, the Washington-based SEC has sued at least 44 people, including eight attorneys, for insider trading, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

"This case is part of the continuing effort of the commission to vigorously prosecute lawyers and other gatekeepers who seek to illegally profit from confidential client information," said Robert Kaplan, an SEC enforcement lawyer overseeing the probe.

Schwinger, 50, learned about the 2005 acquisition from Vastera's then-legal chief, who was looking to join Chicago-based Katten Muchin before the take-over, the regulator said.