California residents who work in executive-level positions are often compensated in part by stocks or other investments in a company. They may also choose to make stock purchases on their own for the companies for which they work. While there are laws surrounding when employees or executives of a company may buy or sell stocks, there may well be situations in which the legitimacy of some transactions is not always immediately apparent.
These are some of the reasons that people may hear about allegations of insider trading or other white collar crimes being levied against executives in large companies. Three executives from Equifax are just some of the latest people to face these allegations. The company’s data breach that exposed millions of consumers’ data is said to have occurred on July 29. On August 15, the company banned employee stock sales due to the issue. Prior to that, three executives sold several shares of stock between August 1 and August 2.
Those three were accused of insider trading. However a recently completed review by the company’s board has concluded that no fraud was involved in the executives’ stock sales in early August. The criminal charges against the men are still being investigated by federal authorities.
After being accused of a white collar crime, California employees might find talking to an attorney a useful way of understanding the charges and their best path to a good defense against the allegations.
Source: Bloomberg.com, “Equifax Executives Cleared by Board Over Post-Breach Sales,” Jennifer Surance and Anders Melin, November 3, 2017