NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — James Gansman, a former partner at the accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP, was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of tipping a friend about the identities of at least seven different acquisition targets of clients.

The SEC filed a lawsuit yesterday in Manhattan federal court against Gansman and the woman he allegedly tipped, Donna Murdoch, a managing director at a Philadelphia-based broker-dealer.

The SEC, which also sued Murdoch's father, Gerald Brodsky, said the defendants used the tips to trade in the securities of the target companies, earning $596,000. Gansman learned of the pending acquisitions through his work at New York-based Ernst & Young, the SEC said in its complaint. The alleged scheme ran from the summer of 2006 to the fall of 2007, the SEC said.