Another former Equifax executive is facing insider trading charges.
On Thursday, prosecutors said they charged a former software development manager with insider trading, nearly four months after the former chief information officer of one of Equifax’s business units faced similar charges. The subject of the most recent charges, Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.
The U.S. Attorney in Atlanta said in a notice about the arraignment that the insider trading related to a massive data breach last July that Equifax disclosed to the public in September. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed separate civil charges on Thursday.
In a statement, Equifax said, “Upon learning about the sales of Equifax shares by Mr. Bonthu, we immediately launched a review of his trading activity and separated him from our company after he declined to cooperate with our inquiry. We are fully cooperating with the SEC and the Department of Justice, and will continue to do so. We take corporate governance and compliance very seriously, and will not tolerate violations of our policies.”
After the data breach was revealed, questions about executives selling shares in the company last summer emerged. Four top executives sold nearly $2 million of stock just days after the breach was discovered internally but weeks before the public was informed. A special committee of the board found that the sales by these executives were not improper and that they didn’t know about the breach at the time of the sales.
But another executive, Jun Ying, was indicted in March of insider trading and charged by the U.S. Attorney and the SEC. Prosecutors say he used inside knowledge and sold the equivalent of $950,000 of stock before the breach was made public and Equifax shares dropped 14 percent.
