Tyler Loudon, a resident of Texas, earned nearly $2 million through illicit trading by listening in on his wife's conversations. Loudon's wife, employed as a mergers and acquisitions manager at BP Plc, was involved in overseeing BP's acquisition of TravelCenters of America, as reported by Bloomberg, citing the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Over several months, Loudon bought shares in TravelCenters of America, Inc. When BP announced its intention to acquire TravelCenters of America at a 74% premium, Loudon swiftly liquidated his brokerage and retirement accounts around February 2023, resulting in a profit of $1.76 million.

The man got the idea to buy TravelCenters because he heard his wife talking about it while she worked from home. When he told her what he did, she left him and asked for a divorce. She also told BP about his actions,who then fired her, but they couldn't find proof she helped him.

As part of a deal with the authorities, the man had to give back the money he made and pay a fine. The company, BP, didn't want to say anything about it.

The deal for BP to buy TravelCenters of America was worth about $1.3 billion. This gave BP more gas stations in the US. At the time, TravelCenters had 281 locations in 44 states.

Since many people started working from home because of the COVID-19 virus, there have been more cases like this. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which checks if trading is fair, has been investigating many cases where people got secret information while working from home.

The man even listened to his wife's work talks when they were on vacation in Rome.