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 developing separately, are in their preliminary phase and it is possible that they will not lead to charges or accusations of irregularities, since it is usual for the authorities to open investigations after financial entities or public companies suffer great 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 sold 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 for which the SEC recently tightened the rules, including a 90-day waiting period. before the sales can be executed and which were effective on February 27, the same day the executives sold.
