Former Yahoo executive charged with insider trading

DHAKA: United States regulators announced that a former Yahoo executive has agreed to plead guilty in an insider trading scheme that involved leaking word of the Internet search giant’s pact with Microsoft.

Robert Kwok was senior director of business management at Yahoo in 2009 when the firm negotiated an alliance with Microsoft to have Bing technology power online searches, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kwok shared news of the supposedly secret pact with Reema Shah, who was then the mutual fund manager for Ameriprise Financial, the SEC said.

Shah orchestrated the purchase of more than 700,000 shares of Yahoo stock based on Kwok’s ‘illegal tip’ and then sold them for a profit of US$389,000 after the Microsoft deal went public, the SEC charged.

BDST: 1434 HRS, May 22, 2012

Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor