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Outrage Builds after Equifax Executives Banked $2 Million Following Data Breach

posted by janrinok on Monday September 11 2017, @07:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the malice-or-coincidence? dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow5389

The sale of nearly $2 million in corporate stock by high-level Equifax executives shortly after the company learned of a major data breach has sparked public outrage that could turn into another hurdle for the credit rating agency.

The sales all occurred before the company publicly reported the breach, a disclosure that quickly sent its stock tumbling. The timing of the sales could attract federal scrutiny, legal experts say, though proving insider trading would be difficult. A company spokeswoman said the executives did not know about the breach when they sold their shares.

“It certainly would be exactly the type of trading pattern before a high-profile event that the [Securities and Exchange Commission] would investigate,” said Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. “Even if they do not bring charges it is the type of conduct that a company should not tolerate in its executives. It sends a terrible message to the public and to customers.”

The SEC declined to comment on whether it was investigating the matter.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/09/08/outrage-builds-after-equifax-executives-banked-2-million-in-stock-sales-following-data-breach/

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @09:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @09:26PM (#566964)

    Sorry to tell you this, but it's roughly an order of magnitude smaller. That army of black supporters standing behind you to back you up is quite a bit smaller than you suppose.

    http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/12/black-voter-turnout-fell-in-2016-even-as-a-record-number-of-americans-cast-ballots/ [pewresearch.org]

    The number in question is recorded to 16.4 Million.

    If we take the earlier referenced 8% as out starting point, and assume swings possible of 3% in either direction, that gives us 5% and 11% as values to consider. 5% of 16.4 million is 820,000 (which is the ballpark of the population of a medium-large city such as Seattle). However, 11% of 16.4 million is over 1.8. While I'll grant you that it isn't a gargantuan number, and rounds up to two million, it sure as hell isn't an order of magnitude off. Not even a binary order of magnitude. At best the most conservative estimate could be suggested to be an order of magnitude off , especially if it's binary that you mean, but the other side of the estimate is readily cast as, to put it in financier's terms: seven figures.

    But ok, sure. I'm sure all the OTHER Trump supporters were KKK members, right? And all those nasty Uncle Toms who voted for him were just beaten by white supremacists until they got Stockholm Syndrome. You can't blame them. It's the evil trumpeters!