The credit reporting agency Equifax announced today that it suffered a massive breach, losing Social Security numbers and other personal information for 143 million U.S. consumers. Although the public is just now learning about the breach, Equifax says it discovered it on July 29—which makes the stock trades three executives made a few days later look … not great.
The shares sold by the three executives were valued at almost $1.8 million, Bloomberg first reported. Three SEC filings confirm the report.
On August 1, just days after Equifax says it first learned that hackers had made off with the personal information for 143 million people and the credit card numbers of 209,000 individuals, Equifax chief financial officer John Gamble and president of U.S. information solutions Joseph Loughran each sold shares worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to SEC filings. Gamble sold 6,500 shares, worth about $946,374, while Loughran sold 4,000 shares, worth $584,099.
Gee, that’s weird!
Then, on August 2, Equifax’s president of workforce solutions Rodolfo Ploder also sold some stock (1,719 shares), to the tune of $250,458. Bloomberg reports that these transactions weren’t pre-scheduled.
That’s neat I guess.
Gizmodo asked Equifax to explain the trades and will update if the company responds.
Update 8:10 p.m.: An Equifax spokesperson provided the following statement: “Equifax discovered the cybersecurity incident on Saturday, July 29. The company acted immediately to stop the intrusion. The three executives who sold a small percentage of their Equifax shares on Tuesday, August 1, and Wednesday, August 2, had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares.”
