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Equifax Stock Sales Are the Focus of US Criminal Probe (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether top officials at Equifax Inc. violated insider trading laws when they sold stock before the company disclosed that it had been hacked, according to people familiar with the investigation. U.S. prosecutors in Atlanta, who the people said are looking into the share sales, said in a statement they are examining the breach and theft of people's personal information in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Securities and Exchange Commission is working with prosecutors on the investigation into stock sales, according to another person familiar with the matter. Investigators are looking at the stock sales by Equifax's chief financial officer, John Gamble; its president of U.S. information solutions, Joseph Loughran; and its president of workforce solutions, Rodolfo Ploder, said two of the people, who asked not to be named because the probe is confidential. Equifax disclosed earlier this month that it discovered a security breach on July 29. The three executives sold shares worth almost $1.8 million in early August. The company has said the managers didn't know of the breach at the time they sold the shares. Regulatory filings don't show that the transactions were part of pre-scheduled trading plans.
Then in perfected USA fashion, fire the Janitor, and give the guilty a big bonus.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
They can prove, they knew about the "hack" before they told anyone public, and sold their stock, they should be held accountable. But, in the white collar crime area, most get off with a slap on the wrist, or, at most, locked up in one of those country club style jails.
exactly when they knew is unknown
So either these top-level executives were negligent in not knowing of a major security breach that others in the company likely knew or they broke securities laws by selling shares with material insider information.
How can they be guilty, they are executives.
No jail time. Slap on the wrist. Just don't do it again.
Just don't do it again.
Come on man, that's pretty harsh. They should just have a year cool down or so before they can rape shareholders and consumers for personal profit again, in accordance with long-standing tradition.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"I hereby sentence you to five years in Federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison."
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Tisk-tisk.
So only a federal investigation can get these crooks, everyone else is screwed if they try to sue the individuals.
They probably read "The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron" and cashed out to lawyer up before it was too late.
In the Trump administration.
Just another hack with millions of people's data compromised, ho hum. And to think everyone first complains about too much regulation. With all these hacks, how about things like what Apple is really doing with future projects? (i.e. iphone has been in the works for decades). Or nuclear missile launch codes, what kind of words or character combination do they really use? Or Donald's taxes, Hillary's emails, ...
mfwright@batnet.com
Unlike the personal details of 100M USAnians!
Requiem for the American Dream
So the reality is that Equifax DID disclose that IT and its executives knew of the break on July 29, the stock sales were in august. A COMPANY KILLING BREACH doesn't get kept secret to just a few low level managers. I mean, come on.
The bigger question is were the stock sales limited to just the top 3? Probably NOT. Which means the SEC should pursue every stock stale by anyone connected down the line. The VPs, Sr managers... anyone who worked at Equifax and sold, or who might have been told by someone at Equifax... must disgorge those profits and pay a penalty. the fines should be charged, and the amounts first used to help pay for the cost of the SEC to enforce more areas, and to the extent not otherwise used, held in trust to compensate potential victims.
shouldn't the actual security breech and loss of 143 million sensitive records also be the subject of a criminal investigation?
Modern CFOs are on par with and in some cases more powerful than CEOs. High degrees of incompetence not withstanding, they should have known early on AND should be among the most informed with regards to securities rules and regulations. So on the surface, I could see some executives just happening to be innocently selling shares around that time (and who may legitimately not have known). But I don't buy it from the CFO. That would imply the CFO is so clueless/misinformed they either weren't aware of the laws (scary) or weren't aware of the breach (equally scary).
Yeahrite
I work for a 10K+ employee publicly held company. Here in /. I'm pretty sure you've heard of it. Management claims we're all insiders because we're so open. Which we are, except we really aren't. Maybe ten years ago when we were less than 2K employees. Everyone is subject to a trading window and quiet periods and $deity forbid we should accidentally buy or sell when the trading window is closed. Oh yeah, we could have a trading plan, but anyone who knows about such things knows we're talking about trading in the six and seven figures to qualify for one of those; it isn't us peons, that's for damn sure.
Regardless. Those CxO types at Equifax who traded between the "discovery" and the public announcement – they fucking well did know, you can bet your bottom fucking dollar. And if they get off with a slap on the wrist you can bet there's going to be some serious fucking howling.
they are witches...
Iron Mountain just got a big document destruction contract to an anonymous Atlanta firm.
These asshats did not schedule the sales. If they did, they would have already made a public statement about their innocence. It's now obvious that the people under investigation are of the same caliber as the fools who just "retired". It's reasonable to assume that they found out what was going on and sold in a panic. Yes, they are that stupid and thought that somehow they would get away with it.
If you assume that any upper management at Equifax, or their competitors, are dumber then a box of rocks you will most likely be right. Credit reporting is under-regulated, monopolistic, and corrupt. Just like the rest of Wall Street. It's a system designed to make insiders rich and immune from all negative consequence. Stockholders, regular workers and clients are all expendable.
This environment always full of incompetent greedy psychopaths. If you doubt this, just look at the President.
Why is Snark Required?
Several million peoples data is on the line? Bad, but not as bad as stealing from the rich.
Increasing the price of medicine to absurd hights? Nice, but don't steal from the rich, because we go after you.
Fraud millions of people with shit loans and cause a worldwide economic disaster? Not nice, but don't steal from the rich, like Bernie Madoff.
Luckily you have a piece of paper that says "for the people, by the people" so that is nice. Keeps you hopeful.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I love the excuses from Equifax that there was nothing improper because these were "small amounts" of stock.
Nevertheless, it is illegal to sell a SINGLE SHARE OF STOCK based on the knowledge of information that is not available to the general public, without proper advanced disclosure.