BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The U.S. government has accused a top Micron Technology Inc. executive of sharing insider information about his former employer with family members.
Anand Jayapalan, who was hired by Micron six weeks ago after working at SanDisk, is accused of giving his wife, aunt and uncle information about SanDisk in 2014 that allowed them to make hundreds of thousands of dollars on illegal stock trades, the Idaho Statesman reported .
Micron declined Monday to comment on whether the lawsuit has impacted Jayapalan’s status or if the company knew about the allegations when it hired him.
“The litigation relates to the period of time when Mr. Jayapalan was employed at SanDisk, prior to his employment at Micron,” Micron spokesman Marc Musgrove said. “As such it is not appropriate for us to comment on this pending litigation.”
Jayapalan is accused of telling his family members that SanDisk was going to buy Fusion Inc. before the transaction, leading them to buy more than 78,000 shares before selling them after the purchase as Fusion’s stock rose 22 percent, according to the lawsuit.
The uncle, a physician whose practice was declining, owed nearly $100,000 in credit-card debt, The Idaho Statesman reported.
Jayapalan received “substantial personal benefit” from tipping his wife, aunt and uncle, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stated.
The lawsuit seeks to order all four defendants to give up the proceeds of the transactions and pay unspecified civil penalties.
Attempts to reach Jayapalan or his attorney for comment were not immediately successful.
Jayapalan joined SanDisk in August 2013 as senior director of corporate strategy. He signed an agreement acknowledging that he must obey U.S. securities laws that prohibit the purchase or sale of securities by people who possess nonpublic information that could affect the securities’ value.
In May 2014, SanDisk promoted Jayapalan to general manager of enterprise storage, which was around the same time that SanDisk decided to buy Fusion.
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Information from: Idaho Statesman, https://www.idahostatesman.com
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