Outsiders on the Inside

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued unidentified buyers of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC securities over what the agency called “highly profitable and suspicious purchases” before PepsiCo Inc. announced it would buy a 66 percent stake in the Russian dairy and juice producer.

“Unknown purchasers” bought 400,000 American depositary receipts in the Russian company from Nov. 29 to Dec.1, when there was no public information available concerning the contemplated acquisition, the agency said today in a complaint in federal court in New York.