JUSTICE

Former Equifax Executive Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading

Tied to the company’s massive data breach.

Former Equifax executive Jun Ying, who sold stock options before the company publicly announced a massive data breach, has pleaded guilty to insider trading. Equifax experienced one of the biggest data breaches in U.S. history, and has since been hit with a multi-billion dollar class-action lawsuit. Ying, the former chief information officer of Equifax’s U.S. Information Solutions, sold stock for nearly $1 million a week and a half before the company announced the breach. He was indicted in March 2018, and had previously pleaded not guilty. Equifax shares plunged in value after the credit reporting company disclosed the breach in Sept. 2017. The company eventually revealed that 145 million people’s personal information was exposed. “We must not allow company insiders to have an advantage over regular investors, otherwise the integrity of the markets and confidence of investors deteriorates,” said Chris Hacker, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta. Ying’s sentencing is scheduled for June 27.

PAYBACK

Equifax Stung With Multibillion-Dollar Data-Loss Lawsuit

Joseph Cox