According to a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). AT&T Inc. T has agreed to pay a $6.25 million penalty for selectively leaking financial information to Wall Street analysts.

Three executives from AT&T, Christopher Womack, Kent Evansand Michael Black, have each agreed to pay a fine of $25,000. The SEC alleged that these executives were complicit in violating Regulation FD and made private calls to analysts at about 20 companies.

“We are committed to complying with all applicable laws and look forward to a resolution with the SEC. With this settlement, the company and its employees have neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations,” Reuters quoted AT&T as saying.

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The report states that as early as 2021, the SEC was accused AT&T and the three Investor Relations Executives to have shared details about the smartphone business with 20 companies.

According to the SEC, the company violated fair disclosure, which the agency instituted a year earlier to prevent companies from privately disclosing material nonpublic information.

Speaking of the SEC’s action against AT&T, Dennis Kellerthe president and chief executive officer of nonprofit watchdog group Better Markets, said, “We applaud the SEC for penalizing the company and three executives for what appears to be illegal conduct.”

“But mere fines are too small to stop this widespread corporate practice of market manipulation by selectively leaking material non-public information to handpicked firms, giving them a unique trading advantage to rip off unsuspecting investors,” he added.

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