March 12 (Reuters) - A former Tallgrass Energy board

member and his friends will pay $2.2 million to settle insider

trading charges related to a Blackstone-led $3.03 billion

buyout offer for the oil pipeline operator in 2019, the U.S. SEC

said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced

the insider trading charges and the settlement in a statement.

The SEC alleged that Roy Cook, a former board member of

Tallgrass Energy, and four of his friends traded on nonpublic

information before the Blackstone-led group's buyout offer was

announced in August 2019. Tallgrass shares jumped 36% after the

deal was made public.

Cook and his friends agreed to pay a civil penalty and

disgorge their "illicit trading profits" without admitting or

denying the allegations, the SEC said.

Terms of the Blackstone deal, which valued Tallgrass at

$6.3 billion, were struck ahead of a collapse in energy prices

in 2020 when global fuel demand plummeted due to COVID-19

pandemic-related business shutdowns. The deal closed at that

valuation making it a rare case of a pre-market crash deal going

ahead without a price cut.