Insider Trading at Inventec

Typhoon Sepat has come and gone, leaving tons of rain, but here in central Taiwan effects were minimal. Other areas got smacked, and there is still fear of landslides and mudflows along streams in the mountain areas. Fortunately there were few injuries.

Meanwhile, back in Taipei, Inventec, the well-known maker of iPods and other tech stuff, is being smacked by prosecutors for insider trading. Engadget reports....

Earlier this year, Inventec was raided as prosecutors began looking for evidence to support charges of alleged insider trading, and now it looks like nine of the firm's employees could be headed to the slammer. Taiwan's Banciao District Prosecutors Office "alleged that nine executives and one lower level employee failed to publicly reveal a steep drop in iPod orders until after they had sold off nearly $22.4 million worth of stock," and although the employees knew of the order cuts as early as January 19th, nothing was publicly revealed until mid-March. Purportedly, prosecutors "are seeking the stiffest penalties against the two top executives," and if the evidence sticks, we have all ideas that Inventec will be huntin' a new Chairman (and President, too) in the not-too-distant future.

According to the law, when a company receives bad news, such as a drop in iPod orders, it has to inform its shareholders immediately. But the company held the news for months, and its insiders sold off their stock -- thus cheating the shareholders.

Insider trading is a common problem here. I've got a longer review of the some of the issues in this post.

[Taiwan]