Ex-Minor League Baseball Players Get Time Served in SD Insider Trading Case

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Three former minor league baseball players who

pleaded guilty to profiting from inside information involving Del Taco stock

were sentenced in San Diego federal court Friday to credit for time served.

Jordan Joseph Qsar, Grant Lee Witherspoon, and Austin Lane Bernard

purchased Del Taco stock, then sold the shares after Qsar learned that Jack in

the Box was acquiring Del Taco.

Prosecutors say Qsar learned of the acquisition from a friend who

personally worked on the Del Taco deal as a senior associate in Jack in the

Box's strategic finance department.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Qsar then shared that

information with Witherspoon and Bernard, whom he knew through playing minor

league baseball in the Tampa Bay Rays' system and college baseball at

Pepperdine University.

The trio then purchased Del Taco stock and sold it in the days after

the acquisition went public in late 2021, netting them between $42,768 and

$64,693.

In prosecutors' sentencing documents, they wrote that Qsar's friend

was not criminally charged because it was not clear that he intended to commit

insider trading. More than a dozen other people who profited from the

information were also not charged ``because it was difficult to assess their

intent,'' prosecutors wrote.

The prosecution and defense attorneys jointly recommended sentences of

time served. Prosecutors did not recommend custody, as they wrote that each

man's felony conviction would serve as a sufficient deterrent.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also brought cases against

the trio, all of which settled in 2024.

Copyright 2026, City News Service, Inc.