WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have filed criminal and other charges against a former Equifax executive over alleged insider trading linked to the credit reporting company's massive data breach made public last year, officials said on Wednesday.
Jun Ying, the former chief information office for one of the company's units, faces criminal charges filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia in addition to anti-fraud charges filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC's complaint alleges Ying used confidential information to determine Equifax had suffered a massive data breach. After realizing the risk to the company, he exercised all his vested Equifax stock options and immediately sold the stock, receiving over $950,000 in proceeds, the SEC said.
The SEC said it determined Ying avoided more than $117,000 in losses by selling the stock before Equifax announced publicly on Sept. 7 that the personal information of nearly 150 million Americans had been compromised.
The hack could turn out to be the most costly in corporate history.
The SEC said it is seeking disgorgement of ill-gotten gains by Ying as well as interest, penalties and injunctive relief.
Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.