September 18, 2017

The Justice Department Is Investigating Equifax Officials Who Dumped Stock for Possible Insider Trading

Three top officials sold $1.8 million in stock days after the company learned it had been hacked.

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The US Department of Justice has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into three top Equifax officials for possible insider trading, two sources tell Bloomberg.

The three officials—Chief Financial Officer John Gamble, President of U.S. Information Solutions Joseph Loughran, and President of Workforce Solutions Rodolfo Ploder—collectively sold nearly $1.8 million worth of Equifax stock days after the credit rating agency discovered a massive cyber-breach. The sale occurred about a month before the company publicly announced that there had been a major hack, potentially revealing information—including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and credit card numbers—for up to 143 million people. Equifax has previously claimed that the three officials “had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time” they dumped their stocks. 

In an emailed response to Mother Jones, U.S. Attorney John Horn said: “The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is working with the FBI to conduct a criminal investigation into the Equifax breach and resulting theft of personal information.” The Justice Department’s Atlanta division declined to comment on whether the three Equifax officials are the subject of an insider trading probe. 

This post has been updated.

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