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The son of Dutch Bros chairman and co-founder Travis Boersma has paid back $8,500 he made by rapidly buying and selling stock in his father’s company.

The Oregon-based drive-thru chain disclosed the trades in a securities filing this past week. Boersma’s 20-year-old son, who isn’t identified by name, had been trading Dutch Bros’ stock and options since November 2021.

Boersma “was recently notified of the transactions by his son,” according to the new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company responded by disclosing the trades and by paying back the proceeds from the trades, “as required.” Bloomberg’s Matt Levine first noted the trades Wednesday.

“Mr. Boersma’s son was day trading a small number of shares in several stocks. He didn’t understand the reporting requirements as they relate to Dutch Bros due to his father’s role,” the company said in a written statement. The company indicated it has no reason to believe regulators are investigating the trades.

“We feel comfortable with what we have filed with the SEC regarding this matter,” Dutch Bros said.

Boersma, who started Dutch Bros with his brother in 1992, owned 129 million shares in the Grants Pass company when the company filed its last proxy statement in April. Those are worth $3.8 billion at current prices, so his son’s day-trading is small potatoes relative to the family fortune.

It’s a good illustration nonetheless of how securities law governs stock trades by corporate insiders.

The U.S. has strict rules about the trading of stock by company insiders and their family members. Boersma’s son doesn’t work for Dutch Bros, but securities regulators might consider him a member of the chairman’s household, subject to trading rules, because of his age.

In particular, as Bloomberg’s Levine notes, the rules also restrict “short-swing transactions” in which insiders sell shares within six months of their purchase. Insiders must pay back any money they make in such deals – as Boersma’s son did this month.

In the case of Boersma’s son, he bought and sold shares or options about three-dozen times between November of 2021 and August 2023. Sometimes he would buy and sell shares on the same day – that’s typical of day traders who seek to capitalize quickly as share prices rise and fall.

The company’s securities filing also shows that Boersma’s son sometimes bought shares or options shortly before the company announced quarterly financial results. Those are periods when stocks can be especially volatile, increasing the value of options.

And if Boersma’s son had any information about the company’s performance – and there’s no evidence he did – he could have used that insider knowledge to time his trades accordingly. Regardless of his age, trading based on insider information would represent a serious offense.

But the filing indicates Boersma’s son didn’t consistently profit from his trades. Sometimes he made a little bit of money, sometimes he lost some.

For example, Boersma’s son bought 13.3 Dutch Bros shares on Aug. 8. Dutch Bros issued strong quarterly results that afternoon and the stock shot up 18% the next day.

However, Boersma also sold 27.3 shares on Aug. 8. That means he missed out on profiting on the company’s big jump in earnings on Aug. 9.

“If it is insider trading, he’s not very good at it,” said University of Washington finance Professor Kevin Boeh.

People who actually seek to profit from insider information are facing new challenges, according to Boeh, because regulators use computers to monitor every transaction. But he said prosecutors may only pursue the most high-profile cases because of the complexities involved in bringing a case to trial.

“Anyone who thinks they can make insider trades and not be caught is misinformed. Humans used to have to look at trades and could prosecute just a tiny fraction of cases,” Boeh said.

“Now, every trade can be analyzed. If you do insider trading, the SEC will know,” he said. “The issue is prosecuting every such case — an impossible task.”