The Securities and Exchange Commission today accused two Hong Kong residents of using inside information to buy $15 million of Dow Jones stock ahead of an announcement that News Corp was seeking to buy the company.

The lawsuit in US District Court in Manhattan named as defendants Kan King Wong and Charlotte Ka On Wong Leung, a married couple living in Hong Kong.

According to the lawsuit, Wong and his wife, Charlotte, bought 415,000 shares of Dow Jones stock in the two weeks prior to the announcement last week that News Corp had offered to buy Dow Jones.

After the public announcement, the value of Dow Jones stock rose 58 per cent, causing the couple’s Merrill Lynch account to grow to $23 million, a net gain of $8.18 million.

The lawsuit did not explain how the couple would have obtained inside information on the pending offer.

Federal and state authorities have said that they are investigating suspicious options trading in Dow Jones stock before the announcement of News Corp’s $5 billion bid for the financial news publisher.

News last Tuesday of the $60-per-share bid by Rupert Murdoch’s company sent Dow Jones shares soaring.

A spokesman for Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, confirmed today that it has received a subpoena from the New York attorney general’s office and a request for information from the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding options trading.

Dow Jones said that it will “co-operate fully” with the authorities.

The New York Times reported today that both Dow Jones and News Corp admitted they had received subpoenas on Friday.

Trading in Dow Jones options soared on April 30, the day before the bid was disclosed and a single investor purchased 280,000 Dow Jones options on April 25, far more than are usually traded in a single day.

The spike in trading arouses suspicions that people were trading on insider information to make a profit. Dow Jones shares gained more than 50 per cent on the day that news of the approach broke, to reach $58.47.

Many individuals including the lawyers and bankers for both Dow Jones and News Corp knew of the bid approach long before it was made public.

The New York Times also reports today that The Wall Street Journal editor Paul Steiger knew of the News Corp approach at least a week before it broke on TV news channel CNBC but decided not to publish any news of it.

He was e-mailed on a confidential basis by Rupert Murdoch in late April before the formal announcement, in which Mr Murdoch informed him of the bid and offered his reassurances that he would uphold The Wall Street Journal’s editorial integrity.

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