The United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are investigating the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), people familiar with the matter have told The Wall Street Journal, after the financial regulators to intervene on Friday the Californian entity, affected by a massive flight of deposits.
The investigations, which would be conducted separately, are in their preliminary phase and may not lead to charges or allegation of wrongdoing, as it is common for authorities to open investigations after financial institutions or public companies suffer large unexpected losses. .
Likewise, the sources consulted indicated that the investigations would also seek to examine the sales of shares made by SVB Financial personnel before the bankruptcy of the bank.
According to SEC records, SVB CEO Greg Becker and CFO Daniel Beck sold shares in the bank weeks before the bank collapsed.
Specifically, Becker exercised options on 12,451 shares on February 27 and sold them the same day for about $2.3 million, while Beck expedited just over $575,000 worth of shares on February 27, about a third of their shares in the company.
Both sales were made under so-called 10b5-1 plans, which allow stock sales to be scheduled in advance to allay suspicions of insider trading and on which the SEC recently put up with rules, which include a 90-day waiting period. before the sales can be executed and they take effect on February 27, the same day the executives sold.
