SEC says Equifax IT executive made nearly $1m from inside trading
Executive Jun Ying illegally sold shares and made nearly $1 million before the public announcement of last year's massive data breach, the SEC alleges.
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Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged a former Equifax executive with insider trading, alleging that he profited from confidential information about a data breach at the company that compromised sensitive data of nearly 150 million people to make a profit.
Jun Ying, former chief information officer of a U.S. business unit of Equifax, faces both civil and criminal charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
"Ying used confidential information to conclude that his company had suffered a massive data breach, and he dumped his stock before the news went public," Richard R. Best, Director of the SEC's Atlanta Regional Office, said in a statement. "Corporate insiders who learn inside information, including information about material cyber intrusions, cannot betray shareholders for their own financial benefit."
Equifax, a major consumer credit reporting agency, disclosed last year that hackers had obtained sensitive information, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth, for 143 million people. The breach began in May and was discovered by the company on July 29.
According to the SEC complaint, before the breach was made public, Ying exercised all of his Equifax stock options, reaping a profit of nearly $1 million and avoiding losses of more than $117,000 in losses.