The WSJ reports that the Justice Department and the SEC will pursue insider trading activity that is disguised by 10b5-1 plans. It’s about time.
- We wrote about Moderna (MRNA), on July 28th 2020 whereby 10b5-1 plans were amended ahead of selling activity HERE. This looks suspicious. We went into great detail.
- I recall companies amending 10b5-1 plans ahead of selling activity during my sell-side days covering Software & Services. It is a real corporate governance problem, a legal problem and a moral problem as well. When CEOs are privy to bad news, they ought to file an 8K to get the news out to the market as quickly as possible before selling stock. Investors however prefer that CEOs buy more stock when shares trade down significantly. Open market purchases demonstrate the most faith in ones company.
- The SEC has one notch in their belt with the recent indictment of Terren S. Peizer, the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ontrak Inc. (OTRK).