Equifax Inc.’s board of directors has formed a special committee to review the sales of stock that executives made days after the company found out it was hacked.
Directors at Equifax have retained counsel and are conducting a "thorough review" of the trading activity, according to a letter the company’s outside lawyers submitted to the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Democrats have called on regulators including the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether the transactions violated insider-trading laws.
“Equifax takes these matters seriously," the company said in its response to questions posed by Democrats on the panel, led by Frank Pallone, from New Jersey. “The board of directors has formed a special committee,” according to the letter, addressed to Pallone and obtained by Bloomberg News.
A spokesperson from Equifax didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The stock sales in question involve Equifax Chief Financial Officer John Gamble, President of U.S. Information Solutions Joseph Loughran and President of Workforce Solutions Rodolfo Ploder. The executives unloaded shares worth almost $1.8 million just days after the company discovered a security breach on July 29. Equifax publicly disclosed the hack six weeks later and has repeatedly said the managers didn’t know of the breach at the time they sold shares.
